TURKMENISTAN: ASHGABAT TO COMPLETE PIPELINE TO IRAN IN 2009

Eurasia Insight
es/eav090308.shtml
8/03/09

A new gas pipeline connecting Turkmenistan and Iran will be finished
within the year, Turkmen officials are saying.

"To date, 6.5 kilometers of the Turkmen-Iranian gas pipeline,
which starts at the large Dovletabat gas deposit, has been built,
and another 18 kilometers of the pipeline has been prepared for
pipe-laying work. Considering the high pace of construction, the
project […] will be completed by November or December this year,"
the state-controlled TDH news agency quoted Deputy Prime Minister
Baymyrat Hojamuhammedov as saying on July 31.

Ashgabat and Tehran are currently in talks to increase gas exports
to up to 20 billion cubic meters per year.

"All of this takes place within the framework of orders from President
Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov to realize [the sale of] surplus gas
products created due to a lack of deliveries of Turkmen gas to Russia,"
the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported on August 1.