Islam Karimov accepted the invitation. He said that the gas pipeline was a symbol of friendship and cooperation between the two neighboring peoples.
Earlier, official Ashgabad said that the gas pipeline would be launched in late December 2009. This date is also mentioned in the first inter-governmental agreement, which Turkmenistan and China reached in April 2006. It provided for the annual supply of 230 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas to China for 30 years. In 2008, the Turkmen and Chinese leaders agreed to increase the deliveries up to 40 billion cubic meters.
The Russian company “Strojtransgaz” is building a 188-km-long Turkmen section of the gas pipeline to China. The first stage of the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline is to service only the Turkmen flow of natural gas.