BEIJING, April 3 (UPI) -- Turkmenistan on Monday agreed to supply China with up to 30 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
"Turkmenistan is ready to supply 30-40bn cu.m. of gas to China, our (gas) deposits are known, and we have got rich reserves," Turkmen President Saparmyrat Niyazov told China's Xinhua news agency in an interview.
A framework agreement on cooperation in the field of oil and natural gas was concluded at the end of the talks between Niyazov and Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing.
The cooperation will be developed on the basis of a joint company or through production sharing," Niyazov told Xinhua.
The gas is expected to be sold at $80 per 1,000 cu. m, Russia's Interfax reported.
Niyazov has previously said Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were negotiating the construction of a pipeline from the Turkmen border to China. Gas reserves on the right bank of Amu Darya river would serve as a basis for future supplies of natural gas to China, he said, according to Interfax.
