China and Russia signed a memorandum on Russian gas shipments to China in 2006, but they have been unable to reach an agreement on pricing and other matters since then. China initially hoped to begin receiving natural gas from Russia in 2011. The new suggestion is that gas from the proposed Altai pipeline would be less competitive in the Chinese market than gas from Turkmenistan, who has already agreed to supply China with 30 bn cum/yr of gas per year. The central Asian nation's gas is much cheaper due to lower exploration costs and shorter pipeline distance. Construction of the Turkmenistan-China pipeline is already under way: the route passes from Turkmenistan across Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to China's north-western Xinjiang region. The first section, including a compressor station, is to be completed by the end of 2009, and the second should be commissioned by the end of 2011.