ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad scheduled a Wednesday trip to Turkmenistan to inaugurate a section of natural gas pipeline, the Turkmen government said.
Ahmadinejad meets with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to inaugurate a pipeline to transmit more than 200 billion cubic feet of gas from the Dauletabad gas field in Turkmenistan to eastern Iran each year.
Dauletabad is the largest gas field in Turkmenistan with an estimated reserve capacity of more than 40 trillion cubic feet of gas.
The Turkmen government said the successful implementation of the pipeline is a sign of growing relations between the two Central Asian neighbors and a marked advancement in regional energy security, the Foreign Ministry said.
"Our country views the resource base and advantages of its geographical location as factors of positive influence on the development of regional and inter-regional economic cooperation, an important condition for maintaining a balance of interests in the Eurasian energy space on the basis of equal access of partners to Turkmenistan's hydrocarbon resources and means of their delivery," a statement read.
The Turkmenistan-Iran pipeline supplements the existing Korpezhe-Kurt-Kui pipeline, which transports 296 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas to Iran.
