Kommersant business daily said quoting sources that China interest in Russian gas may falter as supplies of Turkmen gas under an agreement signed on Wednesday will triple to 65 billion cubic meters per year by 2014-2015.

Turkmenistan plans to start raising its gas supplies to China from next year to sell 40 billion cubic meters in 2012 against the current 17 billion cubic meters through the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline.

The paper said that Turkmenistan started competing with Russia on the Asian gas market after Gaffney, Cline & Associates auditors raised their estimate of reserves of Southern Iolotan, Turkmenistan core gas field to 13 trillion cubic meters to 21 trillion cubic meters making it the world second largest.

Russia wants to sell its gas to China for USD 400 per 1,000 cubic meters, the same price it sells gas to Europe while sources close to the talks told the paper the Turkmen gas price for China would be about USD 250.

In return China will provide further investment in the development of Southern Iolotan, on which it has already spent USD 4 billion and help increase the capacity of the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline.

Turkmenistan may also enter the European gas market by building the EU-supported Transcaspian pipeline aimed at reducing EU dependence on Russian gas imports.

(Sourced from Kommersant)