China Promises Turkmenistan $4 Billion in Bid for Gas ResourcezDate: June 25, 2009 China promised Turkmenistan a $4 billion credit as Asia’s largest energy consumer seeks greater access to Central Asian resources. China Development Bank Co. signed the agreement with state- run gas company Turkmengaz yesterday, according to the Turkmen government Web site. Turkmengaz agreed to boost gas deliveries by 33 percent through a pipeline scheduled to open this year. “We highly value the level reached in our partnership, which is of a mutual, equitable and long-term character,” President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov told Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang in the capital Ashgabat, according to the Web site. China National Petroleum Corp. is building a gas pipeline that may stretch as far as 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) out of landlocked Central Asia to customers in China. While Russia, Europe and Iran talk about building new links to Turkmenistan, the Chinese project will be the first major gas pipeline out of the country since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Under an agreement signed yesterday, the link’s annual capacity was raised to 40 billion cubic meters of gas from 30 billion. The first segment is expected to go into operation by the end of 2009.China is expanding its presence in the five former Soviet republics in Central Asia with loans and development projects. At a regional summit in Russia this month, President Hu Jintau said China would lend Central Asian countries $10 billion to help them weather the global financial crisis. Source: Bloomberg |
China Eurasia Investment Forum 2009
Grand Millennium Hotel Beijing, China. China and Eurasia: Emergence of New Silk Road Investment and networking opportunities for investors, financiers, resources companies and service providers Inaugural China Eurasia Investment Forum aims to bring together the government officials, investors, financiers, resource companies, service... Read more
China and Eurasia Region
