More than 340 billion cubic meters of natural gas have been supplied from Turkmenistan to China since December 2009, which effectively contributed to economic development and the well-being of the peoples of the two countries. This was stated by the President of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) Hou Jijun, speaking online at the International Oil and Gas Conference "Oil and Gas of Turkmenistan - 2022", which is taking place these days in Ashgabat.

The head of CNPC also added that in the future it is planned to increase the volume of supplies of Turkmen gas to China.

“In the future, we will jointly implement important agreements with our Turkmen partners to increase the scale and volume of cooperation in the field of natural gas to give a new impetus to the development and cooperation of the two countries”, the CNPC President said.

Jijun noted that “in June 2022, on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the signing of the production sharing agreement in the Bagtyyarlyk contract area, with the participation of President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, a new gas gathering station was put into operation in this contract area in Lebap region, which has become a clear example and driver of cooperation in the field of natural gas between China and Turkmenistan.”

At the same time, Jijun added that oil and natural gas will retain their status as the main energy sources until 2040, especially natural gas as a low-carbon fossil energy source.

As the CNPC President emphasized, “thanks to the care and support of the Chinese and Turkmen leaders, the parties have achieved good results in field development, natural gas trading, engineering construction and engineering services, as well as the supply of equipment and materials.”

It should be noted that at present, three lines (A, B and C) of the gas pipeline "Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China", put into operation in December 2009, supply about 40 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

In September 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov agreed to intensify the construction of the 4th branch of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Samarkand.