“China and Turkmenistan are important players in the international energy market; our countries have a huge potential for cooperation, which is of deep strategic importance,” said Hou Qijun, President of the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), during his remarks at the plenary session of the International conference “Oil and Gas of Turkmenistan 2023”.
He called on the Turkmen partners to actively develop cooperation in the gas sector and create new growth points in the energy sector.
“Thanks to the strategic leadership of the heads of the two countries, gas cooperation has achieved fruitful results in such areas as exploration and production, natural gas trade, engineering construction, maintenance, supply of equipment and materials, green low-carbon development, and personnel training,” Hou Qijun said.
“As of September 2023, the volume of natural gas trade between China and Turkmenistan exceeded 380 billion cubic meters with a turnover of US $76 billion. China has been Turkmenistan’s largest trading partner for 12 consecutive years, and Turkmenistan is the largest exporter of pipeline gas to China,” the CNPC head stressed.
Speaking about the prospects of cooperation for the future, Hou Qijun expressed readiness to implement important agreements reached by the heads of the two states together with Turkmen partners, to fully use the advantages of CNPC in the fields of finance and technology, market, construction, and operation of transnational pipelines, and to create a closer energy partnership aimed at making a greater contribution to the socio-economic development of the two countries.
In the future, CNPC is interested in continuing to strengthen cooperation with Turkmen colleagues, especially in such areas as natural gas and new energy, green low-carbon investments, and the industrialization of carbon capture technologies.
CNPC is also ready to discuss partnership with Turkmenistan in the field of gas business planning, bioenergy, electrification of transport, hydrogen energy, etc.
CNPC attaches great importance to the training of local specialists in Turkmenistan. Over the past 16 years, 56,000 Turkmen employees have been trained, and 139 citizens have been selected to study at Chinese universities, Hou Qijun said.
CNPC is also ready to actively participate in the creation of Lu Ban workshops in Turkmenistan to train even more specialists for the oil and gas industry in Turkmenistan. ///nCa, 25 October 2023
#Turkmenistan, #China, #CNPC, #OGT2023, #gas