Via Bloomberg, news that Turkmenistan may need at least $5 billion a year in the next decade to stem a decline in natural gas production and meet export commitments to China, Iran and Russia.  According to the article:

“….The Central Asian nation has to produce 90 billion cubic meters of gas a year to maintain output targets, Jennifer Coolidge, the London-based managing director for CMX Caspian Gulf Consultants Ltd., said at the Gas Asia Conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

The country may have as much as 14 trillion cubic meters of gas in the South Yolotan-Osman area in east Turkmenistan, she said, citing a Gaffney Cline & Associates Ltd. report. That would enable Turkmenistan to extract at least 2 trillion cubic meters from underground, she said.

“There is an imminent decline in Turkmenistan gas production because of a lack of investments,” Coolidge said. “The policy is not to allow international oil companies in but they need Western companies to invest and provide the technology.”

The country produced about 73 billion cubic meters of gas last year, according to Energy Intelligence Group, a consulting company. Turkmenistan has agreements to sell 50 billion cubic meters of gas to Russia and 10 billion cubic meters to Iran.

Turkmenistan may export 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas to China next year via the third West-East pipeline, she said.

China, the world’s second-biggest energy consumer, started initial construction of its third gas pipeline connecting the remote west to the country’s eastern cities, Su Shifeng, the chief consultant at China National Petroleum Corp.’s pipeline unit, told reporters in Beijing March 9.

The natural-gas link will have an annual capacity of between 20 billion and 30 billion cubic meters, Su said.”