Today Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Turkmen Counterpart Gurbangulu Berdimuhammedov participated in the opening ceremony of the Turkmenistan-Iran pipeline's second branch length 30 kilometers. The presidents accompanied with governmental delegations and the diplomatic corps came to one of the largest deposits in the country - Dovletabat (in the Mariy region), informs Trend.
In their welcoming speech, the leaders noted that the project has historical significance and will contribute to the diversification of energy supply routes and energy security.
Ahmadinejad visited Ashgabat to attend the opening ceremony of the Dovletabat-Sarakhs-Khangeran interstate gas pipeline. This is the second overall gas pipeline project. Previous pipeline length 200 kilometer was commissioned in 1996 from the Korpeje field to the Kurt-Kui city in the western Turkmenistan.
Given the current facilities, new communication to Khangeran allow to bring the volume of natural gas supplies from Turkmenistan to Iran up to 20 billion cubic meters per day.
The decision to build the second, an additional pipeline to Iran was taken at the governmental level dated July 2010. The National Iranian Gas Export Company has confirmed the query to increase imports of Turkmen gas in 2010 to 14 billion cubic meters per year, while the volume of purchases amounted to about 8 billion cubic meters earlier.
The new gas artery's designed capacity will hit 12 billion cubic meters per year. At the initial stage the pipeline will transport some 6 billion cubic meters per day.