AS PART OF a campaign to import Turkmenistani gas into Russia after a number of years during which Central Asian producers have been ingnored, Gazprom has announced a plan to build a new 700-km, 30-40Bcm/yr gas pipeline for a scheduled start-up in 2007. The new pipeline will provide an alternative export route to the proposed 1,400-km gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and onwards to India. The Gazprom-proposed line would run from the gasfields to Turkmenistans border with Kazakhstan, by-passing Uzbekistan, and then onwards to the Kazakh-Russian border, and it would thus also provide a further outlet for Kazakh gas alongside the planned Shah Deniz pipeline to Turkey. The system would cost each partner an estimated US$1 billion, and it is reported that Turkmenistan will build the stretch to the Kazakh border without Gazprom's assistance, in order to keep full control over the transport infrastructure on its territory. Gazprom, meanwhile, has said that it is ready to help in building the entire line but, given the Turkmen position, its participation would probably be limited to the segment running from Kazakhstan to the Russian border.