Turkmenistan, China’s largest foreign supplier of natural gas, has further expanded production destined for the Asian giant with the launch of a processing plant in Turkmenistan’s eastern desert on May 7. Seated on a gilded throne, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov – who has built an adoring personality cult around himself – launched the Chinese-built, $600-million facility at the Bagtyyarlyk gas field with a scan of his palm print, Reuters reported.Turkmenistan already accounts for over half of China's gas imports, exporting 21.3 billion cubic meters (bcm) to China in 2012. Alone the new plant’s capacity is 8.7 bcm annually, which is also slated for China, the state-run TDH news agency reported. Turkmenistan and China opened the first plant at Bagtyyarlyk in December 2009, when they also launched the first pipeline carrying Turkmen gas to the east, helping the Central Asian nation break its dependence on Russian export routes. Gas at the new plant will also feed the 1,833-kilometer Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China pipeline, TDH said. Chinese investment at Bagtyyarlyk has totaled $4 billion to date, Berdymukhamedov said.TDH also reported that Berdymukhamedov would launch the construction of a second processing plant at Galkynysh, the world’s second-largest gas field, on May 8. That will add another 30 bcm annually to Turkmenistan’s production capacity. Altogether, Turkmenistan is expected to export 65 bcm to China annually by 2020. Much of the new Galkynysh gas will travel along a new, yet-to-be-built line across Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, which has been dubbed Line D.Berdymukhamedov returned from Dushanbe on May 6, where President Emomali Rakhmon reiterated his interest in seeing Line D cross Tajik territory. The three energy-short transit countries will not be allowed to tap into the new pipeline, but China has promised substantial fees, including $1 billion annually to Kyrgyzstan alone, according to Radio Liberty.
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