China could buy Central Asian natural gas

Viktor Apaturov from the Uzbek Centre for Economic Research has stated that in the near future it will not be economically viable for Central Asian natural gas suppliers to built pipelines to Europe. This destination has been the only acceptable one until now, as Europe is currently the only user of the Central Asian natural gas reserves, but the present economic crisis has created different realities.

Demand for natural gas in Europe has decreased, but experts predict that the Chinese economy will be the first to overcome the crisis. Therefore there is a serious possibility that China could become the primary consumer of Central Asian gas. The construction of a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China via Uzbekistan is already underway. There is no visible sign of a serious crisis in financing and constructing the pipeline.

Viktor Apaturov estimates on this basis that in the near future China will offer better prices for gas than Europe, and could therefore develop its own transit routes which would provide serious competition for the Western ones, whose resources and viability would thus be much depleted.