Monday, June 04, 2012 -
Chinese imports of gas from Turkmenistan exceeded 30 billion cubic meters (bmc) over the last 18 months, the operator of the west-to-east pipeline China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) said on Monday.
The Chinese state-run firm opened the route in late 2009.
Half that volume, some 15.5 bcm, was delivered in 2011, it said, according to the Platts news agency.
That was a more than three-fold increase over 2010 levels.
CNPC aims to ramp up its imports of Turkmen gas to 24.1 bcm this year.
Of the total amount, 10.7 bcm was sourced from the Bagtyyarlyk field CNPC is developing under a production sharing agreement with the Turkmen state. The remainder has come from other fields in Turkmenistan.
Further development of Bagtyyarlyk, located in eastern Lebap province, is expected to yield 13 bcm per year by 2014.
CNPC and Turkmen gas authorities agreed in 2008 to raise total annual exports to China to 40 bcm by 2015.
The trans-Asia pipeline transports the gas from giant reserves in the Central Asian republic, through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and into China’s northwest Xinjiang region. From there it splits into eight sub-lines to supply around 400 million customers in southern China.