Turkmenistan delivered 10.6bn m3 to China in Q1 2016 – a third more than in the same period of 2015, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported on April 19.
This mirrored the decrease in Russian imports from the central Asian republic which have now stopped completely.
China has three lines delivering gas from Turkmenistan, each of 1,830 km, totalling 55bn m3/yr capacity.
According to an official Iranian document, obtained by NGE, Turkmenistan’s other customer Iran took 35% more gas, or about 7.5bn m³ between March 21, 2015 and January 21,2016 than in the prior year.
The oil and gas ministry also announced on April 20 that Turkmenistan’s LPG production level would reach 450,000 metric tons in 2016, more than half of which is projected to be exported.
State Turkmennebit has successfully completed an exploration well in a new gas find, Chekishlyar, in the Esenguly region. Another is planned, at a depth of 3,250 metres, the government said mid-April as well. Its daily production rate was 500,000m³ of gas and 75 metric tons of gas condensate.
Ashgabat also announced that a new petrochemical plant worth $3.4bn is planned to become operational in 2018. It will refine 5bn m3/yr of natural gas to produce petrochemical products.
Natural Gas Europe