OREANDA-NEWS. February 11, 2010. A start-up ceremony of one of the major cross-border gas pipeline Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China took place on December 14, 2009.

The President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the President of the Republic of Khazakhstan Noursultan Nazarbaev, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov and the President of the People’s Republic of China Hu Jintao took part in the opening ceremony.  The delegation of Stroytransgaz was headed by the Chairman of the Management Board Alexander Ryazanov.

In accordance with the contract, Stroytransgaz executed engineering, procurement, and construction of Malai-Bagtyyarlyk gas pipeline, as well as the construction of gas treatment and dehydration unit, gas metering station and other infrastructure facilities. The pipeline runs 184.54 km and has a diameter 1,420 mm.

The project was aimed at providing the transportation of gas from Malai field to the right bank of the Amudar’ya River and its further delivery to Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline. 

 The project execution has required the application of advanced technologies and unique engineering solutions.

The laying of the considerable part of the gas pipeline was carried out away from population centers with the lack of developed infrastructure, in adverse natural climatic conditions of the Kara Kum desert.

Site leveling activities, which included lopping of sand-waves reaching 5-6 m in height at separate sections of the route, were executed during the gas pipeline route preparation.
 

The most difficult section to perform was a crossing of the Amudar’ya River, which was built using horizontal directional drilling. The pullback of 1740 m of dia 1420mm pipe during the crossing construction is considered a most complicated work executed for the first time in the world’s practice. 


The application of the HDD method allowed to preserve the natural stream conditions and the fisheries of the Amudar’ya River, as well as its natural landscape. On the other hand, the underwater crossing constructed like that will reduce operating costs for the pipeline inspection and repair, and will not impede the river navigation.