OREANDA-NEWS. March 17, 2014. The capital city of Tajikistan, CNPC's subsidiary Trans-Asia Gas Pipeline Company Limited signed an agreement with Tajiktransgaz on jointly establishing a natural gas pipeline company to manage the construction of Line D of the Central Asia-China Gas Pipeline.

Construction of Line D began to be prepared soon after the signing of a 25 bcm/a gas supply increasing agreement between China and Turkmenistan in November 2011. In September 2013, the Chinese Government signed inter-governmental agreements with Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrghyzstan respectively on Line D project. Currently, the feasibility studies of the project have been completed by Trans-Asia Gas Pipeline Company.

Construction of the Tajikistan section of Line D is expected to start within year 2014. By the end of China's 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020) when construction of Line A/B/C/D and the auxiliary facilities in China are completed, 80 billion cubic meters of natural gas will be transported from Central Asia to China on an annual basis, taking over 40% of China’s gas imports of the year.