OREANDA-NEWS. December 14, 2009. A new 200-km gas pipeline was laid in Central Karakum. The pipeline with the diameter of 720 millimetres connected the Zeagly-Darvazin group of natural gas deposits with the Yylanly compressor station that supplies ‘blue fuel’ to the CAC-4 gas-main pipeline. Each year the new pipeline will supply up to 3 billion cubic metres from the developed deposits in the Karakum Desert to the compressor station. Gas extracted in the central part of the Karakum Desert will interflow with the ‘blue stream’ that is piped from different fields to the gas export system.

The specialists of the branch of the Russian company MRK-Engineering collaborate with Turkmenistan on developing oil and gas industry for the first time. Under the contract they are to perform the complex of works on the gas transportation system – Central Karakum-Yylanly compressor station. Recently, the Russian specialists have reported on the completion on the first stage of construction. It took them a few months to weld and lag the pipe.

The brigades of the Krasnodarstroytransgaz Construction and Mounting Trust (CMT-2) performed a large amount of work. They used state-of the-art technologies and equipment to line up pipes.

State-of-the-art equipment as well as high qualification of the certified welders allowed the pipeline builders to weld over two kilometres of pipes each day. Over 700 builders, two thirds of them are Turkmen specialists and workers, have been performing the necessary operations for several months. Over 300 machines and equipment were engaged.

The builders have completed to lag pipes and lay out the right-of-way to date and continue digging a pipeline trench, fitting and backfilling the pipe. In the near future the contractors will install ten valve junctions and four break-in and break-out junctions at the gas-cleaning units. By mid December the contractor is planning to have completed the works and started testing the pipeline. Under the contract by next July the contractor will have completed construction of the high-voltage power lines, transformer substations, radio-relay and fibre optic units that will allow monitoring distantly the operation the new gas transport system.

Construction of the gas main – Central Karakum Desert-Yylanly compressor station is the first large-scale project implemented by the Russian company in Turkmenistan’s oil and gas sector that will allow assessing the capacity and prospects for cooperation in this priority sector.