Turkmenistan strikes natural gas deal with China’s CNPC

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) — China’s CNPC has started work to set up new wells at Turkmenistan’s giant natural gas fields in exchange for future gas supplies, news reports said Tuesday. It will take CNPC 2 1/2 years to make three new wells at the Galkynysh field operational, Turkmen media reported. Each of them will have a daily output of three million cubic meters of gas. Under the deal with CNPC, Turkmenistan will pay for its services by supplying 17 billion cubic meters (600 billion cubic feet) of gas a year for the period of three years to a total of 51 billion cubic meters (1.8 trillion cubic feet)  of gas. China is the main export market for Turkmen gas.