The Embassy of Turkmenistan in the Russian Federation held a press conference on the launch of the Turkmenistan - Uzbekistan - Kazakhstan - China gas pipeline on 18 December. The press conference was attended by journalists from major media outlets of Russia, socio-political newspaper and magazines, as well as special periodicals covering oil and gas topics and the CIS countries.

During the press conference, the head of the diplomatic mission of Turkmenistan Halnazar Agakhanov informed the media about the positive impact that the new gas pipeline will have on the overall situation in the region and beyond, as the gas pipeline is designed to promote energy security in Asia and ensure sustainability of the whole system of continental political and economic relations.

According to the ambassador, the construction of the Turkmenistan - China gas pipeline was a logical corollary of Turkmenistan's consistent policy of diversification of export routes for the transportation of hydrocarbons that is guided by the pragmatic estimates of the intensive development of the national economy and devoid of any political considerations. The opening of a new gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Iran, scheduled for the coming days, before the end of this year, is another evidence of this policy. This pipeline will bring the annual exports of Turkmen gas to the South up to 20 billion cubic meters in the foreseeable future.

It was stressed that the further implementation of the policy of diversification leaves no doubt about the successful completion of the project on construction of the Turkmenistan - Kazakhstan - Russia gas pipeline along the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. An agreement on this project, signed by the leaders of Turkmenistan, Russia and Kazakhstan in May 2007 in the town of Turkmenbashi, can be speedily implemented given good will and economic interest of the partner countries.

The Ambassador of Turkmenistan said that the international audit of hydrocarbon reserves in the promising field of Southern Yoloten - Osman, conducted last year by British-US company "Gaffney, Cline & Associates", estimated that the deposit contains up to 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, which puts it to the fourth place in the world, thus guaranteeing he country's export capacity.

In an interview with journalists the ambassador also emphasized that given huge proven reserves of gas, regardless of the results of further work on the data refinement, the available resources are sufficient to meet all international treaty obligations of Turkmenistan, and the commissioning of the Turkmenistan - China gas pipeline can be regarded as an important but not the last step of Turkmenistan in increasing its natural gas exports capacity.