China is preparing to sign a deal with Turkmenistan that will increase China’s imports of gas by about a third. From the AP:

The deal means Turkmenistan’s annual gas sales to China will eventually reach 60 billion cubic meters — equivalent to more than half China’s entire natural gas consumption last year.

Turkmenistan began delivering gas to China through a newly completed pipeline in late 2009, but that route is only expected to reach full annual capacity of 40 billion cubic meters by 2015. As of mid-February, Turkmenistan had supplied 5.8 billion cubic meters of gas through the pipeline, according to Chinese oil company CNPC.

New pipelines will need to be built to allow the planned increase in deliveries.

Turkmen President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov is set to visit China later this year to formalize the deal.