Development and characteristics of Central Asian Natural Gas Pipelines

Adjacent to China, Central Asia has significant geographic advantages on the pipelined natural gas trade. To make a good use of the natural gas resources in Central Asia, this paper makes a systematic research on the present development, distribution and recent development plan of the natural gas pipelines of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Meanwhile, the paper also makes a detailed introduction to the significant natural gas export pipelines, including the Central Asia-Central District Gas Pipeline, Central Asia-China Gas Pipeline, Bukhara-Urals Gas Pipeline and Turkmenistan-Iran Gas Pipeline. Then the characteristics of the long-distance gas pipelines in Central Asia are summarized, including the uneven distribution of the pipelines, severe corrosion, difficulties in safe operation and control by national petroleum corporations or their subsidiary companies.