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Turkmenistan (1) -- News -- 2010
Turkmenistan started the East-West pipeline
31.05.2010
Turkmenistan started Monday the construction work on a mega-pipeline project that would connect all the major gas fields of Turkmenistan into a single network.
The launching ceremony of the East-West pipeline took place in Shatlyk, a gas field some 30 km west of Mary,
where President Berdymuhamedov and his team saw the first joint being fused neatly by a welding robot.
President Berdymuhamedov addressed the top officials and guests before the ceremonial welding of the first joint.
He said, “We have set high aims before ourselves and we firmly believe we will achieve them.”
"Turkmenistan, guided by clearly formulated principles of energy strategy, realistic assessment of its own resource base and
prospects of its use in the future, opted not to replace some energy supplies with other, not to change their geographic routes,
but to expand and supplement them by reaching new promising markets. First of all, it is about significantly increasing natural gas exports to
various states and regions of the world," he said.
“We will create a single gas transportation system inside the country which will have not only economic but also political significance.
Thus Turkmenistan will make its own contribution to global energy security,” said the president.
Turkmenistan (1) -- Analyses -- 2010
More about the pipeline
31.05.2010
The East-West pipeline would be 1000 kilometers long, starting at Shatlyk in Mary province, and terminating at Belek-1 compressor station in Balkan
province, not far from the Caspian shore.
The estimated cost of the project is US $ 2 billion. The rated capacity is 30 billion cubic meters per annum.
The diameter of the pipe is 1420 millimeters and it would be placed two meters below the ground, a standard practice for medium pressure pipelines.
There would be seven compressor stations, one every 130 km or so.
The state corporations Turkmengaz and Turkmenoilgasconstruction will do the project with funding from Turkmengaz.
The project would be ready for commissioning by June 2015.
This is the first time that a Central Asian country has started an energy infrastructure project of this magnitude on its own.
That Turkmenistan should be the first to take this daring step is no surprise.
Turkmenistan was the first to transform its Turkmenbashy into a technological showcase, a facility that is still the best in the region.
It was also the initiator of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline that has changed the energy equation in the region for ever.
Turkmenistan was also the first to pressure Russia to start paying market price for its gas.
There have been attempts from the west and the north to make Turkmen gas a zero-sum game,
an either/or scenario. That is why Berdymuhamedov found it necessary to emphasize that the East-West would create opportunities for new
export routes without affecting the existing ones.
While new export routes, including Nabucco, would certainly benefit from the East-West pipeline, an important objective would be to feed
the growing industrial and commercial needs of gas in the western parts of Turkmenistan. The gas is in abundance in the east,
including the world-class Yoloton and Daulatabat fields, but the need for gas is increasing fast in the west
where Turkmenistan plans several power generation and industrial projects in near future.
This pipeline would meet both domestic and export commitments of gas for Turkmenistan.
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