Turkmenistan to Start Big Gas Field Next Year

Turkmenistan will likely start producing natural gas from world’s second-largest gas field next year, Reuters said in a report Friday.

The Central Asian nation plans to build two new pipelines to carry gas from the Galkynysh field. One would run to Pakistan and India and the other would cross the Caspian Sea en route to the European Union, easing the bloc’s dependence on Russian gas, Reuters said.

A Turkmen government official told the news agency that three gas-processing plants are being built, and two of them are certain to be ready in January or February.

The field is being developed under a service contract by CNPC, Gulf Oil & Gas Fze, Petrofac  and a consortium of LG International Corp and Hyundai Engineering Co.