Turkmenistan’s East-West gas pipeline ready by year end

Construction of  Turkmenistan’s East-West gas pipeline running from its eastern fields to the  Caspian Sea will be completed by the end of the year, according to the Trend news agency.   However, the state-run Turkmengaz still faces two significant obstacles before it can connect both its onshore and offshore fields to the lucrative European markets  – Iranian and Russian opposition to the laying of the Trans Caspian pipeline to Azerbaijan and its increasingly fraught struggle with Gazprom for control of the Chinese market, which has led to the freezing of the overground pipeline project  through Kazakhstan to Russia. The combined reserves of the  Galkynysh and nearby Yashlar fields have been put at 26.2tr³, and Turkmenistan has previously claimed that it would eventually be able to supply Europe with 40bn m³a year.