DUSHANBE, May 15, 2014, Asia-Plus -- Construction of the Tajik section of a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China will start in early autumn this year, according to the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources (MoEWR).

An official source at a MoEWR says Chinese oil giant, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), will fund the construction of Line D (a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Tajik territory to China) and Tojiktransgaz (Tajik state-run natural gas distributor) will be co-participant in the project.

CNPC’s subsidiary, Trans-Asia Gas Pipeline Company Ltd (Trans-Asia Gas), and Tojiktransgaz signed an agreement on launching a joint venture for construction and operation of the gas pipeline.   

A government-to-government agreement on construction of a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Tajik territory to China was signed by Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in September last year. 

This more than 400-kilometer pipeline is expected to carry natural gas from Turkmenistan’s southern the Galkynysh gas field through Afghanistan and Tajikistan into China’s northeast Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region.  This gas pipeline is expected to be finished in 2016.

We will recall that Tajikistan had received natural gas from Uzbekistan until 2013.  Uzbekistan suspended gas deliveries via pipeline to Tajikistan on December 31, 2012 after both sides failed to agree on gas prices following the expiration of their contract.  Uzbekistan, Tajikistan''s only supplier of gas, routinely suspends gas deliveries to its neighbor amid complaints of nonpayment.