Iranian-Turkmen Presidents inspect gas achievements

Sarakhs, Khorassan Razavi Prov, Nov 29, IRNA – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow here on Sunday visited an exhibition on the latest achievements of Sarakhs refinery.

The visit took place after the two Presidents inaugurated the second phase of Turkmenistan-Iran gas pipeline in this northeastern city.

The project is to transfer Turkmenistan's gas to northern and northeastern Iranian provinces.

Oil Minister Masoud Mir-Kazemi and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki are accompanying President Ahmadinejad in his tour to Sarakhs which is neighboring Turkmenistan.

The 1,024-kilometer project was completed in two phases. The first 524-km-long phase was commissioned last year and the second, 500-km-long, inaugurated today.

Supplying gas to 16 northern provinces of the country and creating a new corridor for swap and transiting gas to East European markets are among advantages of the 1.2- billion-dollar project.

Turkmenistan, a former Soviet republic bordering Afghanistan and Iran, plans to triple gas production to 230 billion cubic meters over the next two decades and forecasts a more than sixfold increase in oil output, to 67 million tons per year./end