China asserts clout in Central Asia with huge Turkmen gas project

摘要

The start of production from the Galkynysh field is also a major development for Turkmenistan, the world's fourth-largest holder of gas reserves, which seeks new export routes for the fuel to minimise its dependence on pipelines to Russia, which resells the gas. Xi and his Turkmen counterpart, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, simultaneously pressed two symbolic start buttons - two globes the size of basketballs decorated with national flags - to ignite flares at a gas processing plant that towered over the surrounding landscape of sun-baked desert and sand dunes.