Turkmenistan launched its East-West pipeline on Wednesday to connect two of the world's largest gas fields in the east to the Caspian Sea coast with the hope of eventually transferring gas to Europe.
The pipeline, with a capacity of 30 billion cubic meters, extends 773 kilometers from the eastern Mary province where the two gas giants, Galkynysh and Dovletabad, are located, to the Caspian town of Belek near the Caspian coast in the west, according to Azerbaijani news agency, Trend.
The launch of the $2.5 billion pipeline increases hopes of bringing Turkmen gas to Europe, which needs a Trans-Caspian connection that still remains in the planning stage due to disputes on the legal status of the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan's disagreement with companies in the project over production shares.
The European Union and Turkey support the delivery of Turkmen gas through Azerbaijan through the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) in a bid to diversify its gas sources away from Russia.
EU's Vice-President in charge of Energy Union, Maros Sefcovic, had said Turkmen gas was expected to reach Europe by 2019.
Turkmenistan aims to increase production to more than 83 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2015, of which domestic demand makes up nearly one third while exports, mainly to China, will cover the rest, according to an government statement.
By Furkan Naci Top
Anadolu Agency
furkan.top@aa.com.tr