Bearing Force of Natural Gas Price Is Crucial

With central Asia gas pipeline implemented by planning, Turkmenistan will export 30 billion cu.m natural gas every year to China. It is about 2.3 times of the output of Southwest Oil and Gas Field of CNPC, which has the largest output in our country, in 2006 and almost 2 times of recent annual transmission amount of West-East Pipeline.

To fully carry out the agreement, the biggest problem is whether the natural gas price in China has adequate bearing force or not. If it is transmitted from frontier Kashi to eastern cities Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places, there is a great distance away.

As far as transport costs concerned, it is higher than that of Europe. It is not a small victory if China can reach an agreement price with Turkmenistan within $160~180 per thousand cu.m. There is great pressure on the use of natural gas in China in the future.