Japan to build Turkmenistan power plant

Japan’s economic footprint in Turkmenistan will be significantly deeper thanks to deals worth a few $18 billion signed by the two country’s leaders in Ashgabat 23 October.

Turkmenistan hosted a meeting on a shareholder agreement on the Turkmenistan – Afghanistan – Pakistan – India (TAPI) gas pipeline project, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Turkmenistan said Sunday. Since independence in 1991, it has launched ambitious projects to process the commodity at home and find new export routes. Its initialing follows closely the endorsement of State Concern “Turkmengas” (Turkmengaz), as consortium leader of the TAPI pipeline and represents another step by the stakeholders to make this historical project a reality, according to ADB.

Sumitomo and the Turkmen utility signed the contract after Abe met with President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on Friday. “And I will be happy if President Berdymukhamedov assists the implementation of these projects”. He mentioned cooperation with Japanese firms in oil and gas processing, chemical industry and power engineering, but did not elaborate.

Elsewhere in the region, Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will build a fertilizer plant in Uzbekistan that will use natural gas as a key ingredient, the Asahi Shimbun says.

Turkmenistan is expected to send up to 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India for the next 30 years once the pipeline is completed. Moscow angered Ashgabat this year with plans to cut its imports to 4 bcm from 11 bcm in 2014.