The newly commissioned East-West gas pipeline has begun pumping gas from Turkmenistan’s giant inland Galkynysh field to the country’s central Ahal region, the country’s Oil and Gas Ministry announced this week. The 733km pipeline, which was completed last year, runs from the site of the Shatlyk compressor station that is currently being built in the south-east of the country to the Belek-1 compressor station on its Caspian Sea coast.
The gas is expected to be used as the raw material for a planned gasoline production facility and several fertilizer plants, but in the long run the pipeline could connect up with a Trans-Caspian Pipeline to export gas to Western Europe via Azerbaijan.
Turkmenistan ranks fourth in the world in terms of its natural gas reserve volumes. Currently, the country exports gas to Chinese and Iranian markets. Russia suspended the purchase of Turkmen gas in 2016.
Turkmenistan’s East-West gas pipeline starts pumping towards the coast
Source: TREND