Deputy Prime Minister Guvanch Agajanov opened the plenary session at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry with three priorities, by the account on the oil and gas sector’s official portal: the staged development of Galkynysh, whose fourth phase was launched in April 2026 with state financing and the participation of China’s CNPC, the TAPI pipeline, whose key section from Serhetabat to Afghanistan’s Herat province is nearing completion, and Malaysia, where a new production sharing agreement on offshore blocks was signed in June 2026 and Petronas has begun practical work.
Muhammetmyrat Amanov, chief executive of TAPI Pipeline Company, gave the numbers, by News Central Asia’s report of 22 October: the Afghan section to Herat is about 80% complete, about 150 kilometres of route are prepared, pipe is welded along 124 kilometres, about three quarters of the crossings are done, and the section is expected to be commissioned by the end of 2026. The pipe has reached the outskirts of Herat. The line is designed for up to 33 billion cubic metres a year over some 1,800 kilometres.
Maksat Babayev, state minister and chairman of Turkmengaz, speaking at the second plenary session by the same agency’s account of 21 October, dated the Afghan section differently: from Serhetabat to Herat, with commissioning scheduled for 2027. The two dates stand on one day’s record, one from the pipeline company and one from the national gas company.
Babayev also gave the China figure: as of 1 October more than 477 billion cubic metres of gas had been delivered to China since the pipeline opened in December 2009. CNPC International’s Du Yuming put the same total at 477 billion as of 30 September. Galkynysh’s reserves stand at 27.4 trillion cubic metres by the independent audit Babayev cited, its first phase has produced 30 billion cubic metres a year since 2013, and the fourth-phase gas treatment plant is to add 10 billion cubic metres a year and more than 1,000 jobs.
The speaker list marks the buyers and partners Ashgabat is courting: Malaysia’s economy minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir, SOCAR president Rovshan Najaf, Petronas chief executive Mohd Jukris Abdul Wahab, XRG’s Abdulla Al Shamsi, the chief executive of Dragon Oil, BOTAŞ chairman Abdulvahit Fidan and Azerbaijan’s deputy energy minister Kamal Abbasov, who spoke of processing Turkmen crude in Azerbaijan for export, by News Central Asia’s account. Du Yuming spoke for CNPC.
The two dates stand on one day’s record, one from the pipeline company and one from the national gas company.
The forum runs to 23 October. For TAPI the number to hold is 124 kilometres of welded pipe, and the date to hold is whichever of the two the first gas confirms.