China to Get Uzbek Gas This Year

Uzbekistan will start to ship natural gas to China via a pipeline running from Central Asia this year, and plans to supply up to 4 billion cubic metres (bcm) by end of the year, Reuters said citing a senior Uzbek official.

The Central Asian pipeline network, launched in 2009, spans about 2,000 km (1,250 miles) from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan before reaching China's northwestern Xinjiang province.

"We can start shipping our gas right now, but there are some legal issues which need to be settled," Tulagan Zhurayev, head of Uzbekistan's state-controlled gas transportation firm Uzbektransgas, said on the sidelines of the international Oil and Gas of Uzbekistan conference.

Currently, Turkmenistan is the only country supplies gas to China through the pipeline.

The China-bound pipeline had been originally expected to reach annual capacity of 30 bcm in 2012.