Global Biz

Turkmen gas firm to receive Chinese loan

By Cheng Guangjin (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-02 07:45

BEIJING - China signed an agreement with Turkmenistan on Tuesday to provide loans to the Central Asian nation's gas company.

Vice-Premier Wang Qishan and his Turkmen counterpart Baymyrat Hojamuhammedov signed an inter-governmental agreement on the Chinese loan to Turkmengazi State Concern, after their meeting in Beijing.

Xinhua News Agency reported that details of the agreement were not available at the signing ceremony.

"China regards Turkmenistan as a sincere friend and reliable partner," Wang said, highlighting sound political ties and fruitful cooperation in such sectors as trade, energy and finance.

Wang also urged the two sides to further their cooperation in gas, transportation, telecommunications and infrastructure construction.

Wang and Hojamuhammedov are co-chairmen of a China-Turkmenistan cooperation committee, which held its first meeting in Turkmenistan in November 2010. It will meet next in China in 2012.

Hojamuhammedov also met President Hu Jintao in the afternoon.

China has imported 5.82 billion cubic meters of natural gas through the China-Central Asia gas pipeline since it began operating in December 2009, China National Petroleum Corporation, the major operator of the project, said in February.

It is designed to transport 30 to 40 billion cubic meters of natural gas by 2015, it said.

The 1,833-km pipeline, China's first natural gas pipe from overseas, runs through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, before reaching China.

As the special envoy of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Hojamuhammedov's visit came shortly after Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's trip to China.

China and Kazakhstan signed a total of eight deals, including the construction of a high-speed railway and cooperation in the energy, financial and judicial sectors, on Feb 22.

"China and Central Asian nations' energy cooperation has grown to a notably high level," said Sun Zhuangzhi, a senior researcher in Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Turkmenistan has the world's fourth-largest proven reserves of gas behind Russia, Iran and Qatar. The Central Asian nation has significant oil reserves.

Central Asian nations want to diversify their energy clients, while China, as a large energy consumer, needs to have more suppliers, according to Sun.

"The cooperation helps to guarantee energy security to both China and Central Asia," Sun said.

The fruitful cooperation is also a result of the political trust between China and Central Asian nations, which is gained through their wide-ranging cooperation, Sun said.

Xinhua contributed to this story.

China Daily

(China Daily 03/02/2011 page11)