The first pipeline bringing central Asian natural gas to China opened yesterday, underscoring Beijing's rising importance to the former Soviet republics.
Hu Jintao, China's president, joined his counterparts from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan for the ceremony at a Turkmen refinery.
Turkmenistan has agreed to supply China with up to 40bn cubic metres a year of gas – about half its annual production – through the new pipeline, which begins at the Samandepe gas field and crosses Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to north-west China. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are also considering supplying gas to China. Kazakhstan, where Mr Hu visited at the weekend, already operates an oil pipeline to China.
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