I noticed via The International Herald Tribune, that China’s biggest oil company – China National Petroleum Corp. – has agreed to spend US$2.2 billion to help build a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan that will eventually supply energy for booming cities such as Shanghai.  Just yet another matching of mutual interests – China’s desire to lock in energy supplies while Turkmenistan’s desire to develop alternate export routes to the current Gazprom controlled pipeline infrastructure.  As the article notes:

“…The publicly listed PetroChina and China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corp., both subsidiaries of CNPC, will each provide 8 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion, €750 million) in cash for the planned 1,818-kilometer (1,130-mile) pipeline, Xinhua News Agency said late Friday, citing an announcement from PetroChina.

The project was estimated to cost US$7.3 billion (€5 billion) in total, Xinhua said, but its report did not mention where the remaining funds would come from.

The pipeline will run through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan before reaching northwest China, Xinhua said. The pipeline will be connected with China’s second West-to-East gas pipeline, which was expected to be operational by 2010 and reach eastern and southern China, including Shanghai and Guangdong province.

In July, CNPC signed a 30-year contract to buy gas from Turkmenistan, importing 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually.

CNPC Exploration and Development Co. will build the pipeline in cooperation with two state-owned development companies in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Xinhua said….”