Wednesday, May 23, 2012 -
China is set to import up to 25 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas from Central Asia in this year, the chairman of Chinese fuel producer PetroChina said Wednesday.
Estimates range from 23 to 25 bcm, the Reuters news agency reported PetroChina chief Jiang Jieminn as saying in the Chinese capital Beijing.
That amount is significantly higher than total gas from Central Asia imported in 2011, which topped out at 15.9 bcm.
Most of the Central Asian gas received from China hails from Turkmenistan, which signed a development deal with China in April 2011 which saw China giving the Central Asian state $4.1 billion in loans for developing its oil and gas infrastructure. In return, Turkmenistan will provide an unspecified amount of gas.
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are also significant sources of gas for China, and last week Uzbekistan announced it would join the Central Asia-China gas pipeline by the end of this year to add more fuel supplies heading to the East Asian powerhouse.