Gas purifiers failed at Galkynysh gas field in Turkmenistan. A large amount of sulfur-contaminated gas has escaped in the line of the Central Asia-China gas pipeline, which passes through the territory of Uzbekistan, the turkmen.news portal has recently reported citing a source in the Turkmengaz concern.
Reportedly, on the night of May 17, experts of Chinese CNPC discovered sulfur in gas on the border of Turkmenistan with Uzbekistan. A check showed that gas without purification has been pumped into the gas pipeline and sent to China for several days.
Gas with sulfur damages pipes, and for several days leaks were recorded on the Uzbek section of the gas pipeline with a length of 80 km. CNPC allegedly demanded that Turkmenistan respond to the incident and punish those responsible. In the future, the Chinese authorities presumably will be seeking refund.
Turkmen.news added that the reason for the failure to timely purchase reagents and spare parts, as well as the lack of specialists.
The Ministry of Energy denied the information about the leak.
“The transit from our side is carried out according to the schedule. All figures are regularly checked. There are no deviations. There is no mentioned leak in our systems. All systems are working,” the ministry said.
In January 2023, during abnormal frosts, gas supplies from the Galkynysh field to Uzbekistan stopped for almost 10 days due to the formation of hydrate in field pipelines. The Ministry of Energy denied that Uzbekistan demanded compensation for disruptions in gas supplies.
According to the Agency of Statistics, in 11 months (January-November) of 2022, Uzbekistan purchased 2.26 BCM of gas from Turkmenistan for 154.2 million US dollars. In December, the volume of supplies already topped $127.7 million (in total for 2022 - $281.9 million, which is 82.5% more than in 2021). That month, the head of the presidential administration visited Ashgabat to meet with President Serdar Berdymukhammedov and enter into a supply contract for 1.5 BCM of gas for the winter season.
