Most of Turkmenistan's territory is covered by the Karakum Desert. The Amu Darya natural gas project is built in the vast hinterland of the desert. Turkmenistan has the fourth highest natural gas reserves in the world and is known as the Blue Gold Country. The Amu Darya River natural gas project has an annual production of over 10 billion cubic meters, with a peak production of 41 million cubic meters per day. It is the largest overseas natural gas project of China National Petroleum Corporation.

In the desert, there are over 100 natural gas wells scattered. The newly produced gas is collected at the gas gathering station and transported along the pipeline to the treatment plant. After desulfurization, decarbonization, dehydration, and hydrocarbon removal, it is finally sent to the export booster station. In half an hour, they will arrive in the border area between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, 10 kilometers away, and merge into the China Central Asia natural gas pipeline jointly operated by China National Petroleum Corporation and local partners. The leader of this energy dragon is also located here. The dragon head is the first station of the compressor station, providing power for natural gas.

Time goes back to December 14, 2009, when the heads of state of China, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan jointly opened the valve of the China Central Asia natural gas pipeline. This is China's first cross-border natural gas trunk pipeline and has become a key energy project along the the Belt and Road.

The pipeline has four gas sources, both of which come from Turkmenistan, accounting for three-quarters of the total intake. In addition, there are Uzbekistan's Gazli gas source and western Kazakhstan's gas source. Zuo Dong, Director of the Shymkent Management Office of the China Kazakhstan Natural Gas Pipeline Joint Venture of China National Petroleum International Pipeline Company, said that the parallel A/B/C pipelines will achieve the interconnection of China's energy infrastructure with Central Asian countries.Editor/Ma Xue