Turkmenistan provides 50 % of Chinese gas imports
Turkmenistan provided China with 50 % of its total gas imports this year to May through the China-Central Asia pipeline.
In that period, China imported more than 5.7 bn cm of Turkmen gas through the pipeline, the operator China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) announced.
The landmark pipeline, which stretches 1,138 miles in length, currently meets 10 % of the country’s domestic gas consumption.
CNPC installed 29 large gas compressing units along the China-Central Asia gas artery which winds through central Uzbekistan and across southern Kazakhstan and enters China’s northwest Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The pipeline has yet to operate at full capacity, and is expected to transport 30 bn cm per year beginning in June 2012.
China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, has increased production and imports of gas to meet ballooning domestic demand.
Beijing also operates a China-Russia crude oil pipeline in the northeast part of the country and a China-Kazakhstan crude oil pipeline in the northwest.
