China's China National Petroleum Corp said in July that it would import 10bn cum/yr of Turkmen gas for 30 years through the pipeline, due to be completed in 2009. The deal did not specify a price. Mr Berdymukhamedov, who became president in February, has signed a series of contracts allowing companies from Russia, China, and the Middle East to search for and develop oil and gas on Turkmenistan's Caspian Shelf and in the deserts that cover most of the country. The country is the second-biggest gas producer in the former Soviet Union after Russia, and produces about 70bn cum/yr of gas; currently, Gazprom controls the only export route to other ex-Soviet republics and Europe. The country also exports around 8bn cum/yr to Iran, and the US and the European Union have resisted Turkmen efforts to increase gas exports southward by pushing for a trans-Caspian pipeline that would also bypass Russia. In May, however, Mr Berdymukhamedov agreed with Russian and Kazakh leaders to build a new pipeline running through Kazakhstan and into Russia's network. It was also agreed that the entire Soviet-built pipeline network that carries Central Asian gas to Russia would be totally refurbished.