Petronas is just about to start natural gas output in Turkmenistan and may ship 5 billion cibic metres (bcm) of the fuel for export next year, a Turkmen official said on Tuesday.
"Industrial gas production may start before the end of this year," Yagshigeldy Kakayev, head of Turkmenistan's State Agency on Management of Hydrocarbon Resources, told an international oil and gas forum.
"During the first stage, output will total 5 bcm of gas a year, and with new gas deposits coming onstream, volumes will rise to 10 bcm," he said. He gave no time frame for the rise.
He did not say where Petronas would export the gas. Petronas officials in Ashgabat could not be immediately reached for comment.
Turkmenistan, Central Asia's largest natural gas producer holding the world's fourth-largest reserves of the fuel, launched a China-bound pipeline last year and has agreed to boost exports to next-door Iran to lessen heavy dependence on traditional partner Russia.
Another government official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that Petronas could link its pipe to export trunk pipeline Central Asia-Centre-3, which was built in Soviet days and runs from western Turkmenistan to Russia across Kazakhstan.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is due to visit Turkmenistan on Oct. 21-22, and gas is widely expected to top his agenda.
Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said last month that Ankara might seek to buy all 5.5 bcm of natural gas output at a Turkmen site operated by Petronas.
Turkey and its partners in the $10 billion Nabucco gas pipeline project are seeking suppliers for the link, which could reduce Europe's reliance on Russia for a quarter of its gas.
The project, which aims to ship 31 bcm after opening in 2014, has yet to guarantee any supplies, but partners have cited Turkmenistan, along with Azerbaijan, Iraq, Iran and Egypt as potential contributors.
State-owned Petronas, developing an offshore block under a production sharing agreement with Turkmistan, has invested $3 billion since the start of its work in the country in 1996.
