OREANDA-NEWS. May 22, 2014. China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has invested around \\$4 billion in the industrial development of the gas-rich Bagtyyarlyk contract territory in the south of Turkmenistan, Turkmen media outlets reported 8, citing the country's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

"The volume of investments absorbed during the successful implementation of the Bagtyyarlyk project, is USD 4 billion. Turkmen president underscored that currently, the cooperation between Turkmenistan and China dynamically develops in the oil and gas sector," Altyn Asir national TV channel reported.

Earlier, Turkmen media outlets reported that the work at the Bagtyyarlyk field began in 2008 in accordance with the production sharing agreement signed with the State Agency for Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources under the President of Turkmenistan.

China's CNPC carries out the exploration and production of gas at the field. The company has also constructed two gas-purifying enterprises. The first of these enterprises was commissioned at the Samandepe field in 2009 and its capacity is 6.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

The second plant is designed to produce around 8.67 billion cubic meters of tank gas per year.

"Currently, over 21 billion cubic meters of natural gas is sent to the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline from the Bagtyyarlyk contract territory," the country's Watan newspaper reported.

The transnational gas pipeline, Turkmenistan-China, was commissioned at the Bagtyyarlyk field in December 2009.

The pipeline's capacity is 40 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Two branches of the West-East gas pipeline have been connected to it in the territory of China.

The total volume of gas supplied from Turkmenistan to China will be increased to 65 billion cubic meters per year in accordance with the agreement signed in November 2011. Regarding this, the governments of the two countries reached an agreement in September, 2013, to construct the fourth branch of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline. The fourth branch is designed to run through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.