The 142.2 billion yuan ($22 billion) pipeline passes through 15 of China’s provinces to reach the Pearl River Delta region, near Hong Kong, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Construction of the pipeline wrapped up earlier this month.
The gas pipeline will provide up to 30 million cubic meters of natural gas a year, helping reduce reliance on heavily polluting coal.
China has been courting Central Asian former Soviet bloc members like Turkmenistan as part of its push to further diversify and expand its access to the energy resources needed to power its fast-growing economy.
A cooling in Russian-Turkmen relations following a gas pipeline explosion in Turkmenistan in 2009 led to a drop in the amount of gas imported by Russia, freeing up supplies that were swiftly bought up by China.
Turkmenistan began delivering gas to China through a newly completed pipeline that year, and its gas deliveries to China are due to eventually reach 60 billion cubic meters a year — equivalent to more than half of China’s entire natural gas consumption in 2010.
