Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and the deputy chairman of the Turkmen Cabinet, Tachberdy Tagyev, set out the conditions for laying the pipeline at a meeting on Thursday in Turkmenistan's capital, Ashgabat.
They also discussed the construction of a transportation facility near the South Iolotan gas fields, which have an estimated 7 trillion cubic meters of natural gas.
A joint agreement to construct the natural gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Russia was reached between Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan on December 20, 2007. The pipeline is planned to deliver natural gas from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan directly to Russia for further transportation to Europe.
The pipeline is expected to transport an estimated 30 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan and up to 10 billion cubic meters from Kazakhstan.
