Stroytransgaz builds Malai-Bagtyyarlyk gas pipeline in Turkmenistan

PJSC Stroytransgaz has completed the construction of the 185-km Malai-Bagtyyarlyk trunk gas pipeline and associated facilities in Turkmenistan, the company said.

A Turkmen state commission put all the facilities into guaranteed operation on October 12. The client for the project was state-run Turkmengaz.

Aside from the pipeline itself, Stroytransgaz built the first ever pipeline crossing of the river Amu Darya, which runs for two km and has a diameter of 1,420 mm. The project also involved the building of hubs for scrubbing facilities, seven in-line crane hubs, two helicopter pads, a 201-km electric power line, and 201 km of fiber optics.

The work was complicated by much of the pipeline route running difficult climactic conditions in the Karakum desert, far from populated areas and developed infrastructure. As the route was being prepared, leveling operations were performed, including on dunes that reached ten meters high in some places.

The Malai-Bagtyyarlyk gas pipeline is part of the Central Asia - China pipeline. Overall, that pipeline is more than 7,000 km long, began being built in December of 2009, and is designed to supply China with as much as 30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas annually for thirty years.

This past summer, Turkmengaz and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signed a framework agreement on additional natural gas deliveries to China. Annual gas exports from Turkmenistan should increase to 65 bcm.