Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan signed a landmark agreement today to build a natural gas pipeline along the Caspian Sea coast that would strengthen Moscow's monopoly on energy exports from the resource-rich region.

Turkey, Iran and Turkmenistan will set up a company to build a natural gas-fired power plant in Turkmenistan, a senior Turkish energy ministry official said on August 22.

China National Petroleum Corporation has signed a 30-year gas import deal with Turkmenistan on the export of 30 billion cubic metres (1.1 trillion cubic feet) of gas a year to China via a planned Central Asia gas pipeline, according to a CNPC statement late Tuesday, July 17.

China signed deals Tuesday to produce and import natural gas from Turkmenistan, a major step in the realignment of the resource-rich central Asian country away from its former rulers in Russia, a news report said.

China National Petroleum Corp, will sign a deal to develop a gas field in Turkmenistan during an upcoming visit to Beijing by the Turkmen president, a news report said Friday, July 13.

UNESCO has released its most recent additions to the World Heritage List of cultural and natural sites, which this year included Nisa, the capital of the ancient Parthian Empire, in what is now Turkmenistan.

Turkmenistan and Afghanistan presidents discussed prospects for a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai travels today to Turkmenistan for two days of talks on expanding trade and business between the two countries, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported.

The issue of transport routes between Central Asia and Iran was the focus of talks between Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and Iranian leaders in Tehran on June 15-16.

Russian JSC Lukoil was allowed by Turkmenistan's government to work three fields in the energy-rich Caspian Sea, official media in the Central Asian nation reported Wednesday.

The presidents of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, Nursultan Nazarbaev and Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, have held talks that both sides hope will lay the basis for close cooperation between their resource-rich Central Asian countries.

The presidents of Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have agreed to build a natural gas pipeline along the Caspian sea coast. The landmark deak was agreed today during three-way talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev in the coastal Turkmen city of Turkmenbashi.