DOVLETABAD: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today inaugurated a new gas pipeline link to Iran from its energy-rich neighbour Turkmenistan, which will more than double supplies to his country.

Ahmadinejad, on his first trip abroad since a crackdown on opposition supporters in Tehran left at least eight dead, said: “The gas pipeline that is being opened today will take our relations to a new level.” It will raise the supply of Turkmen gas to Iran to 20 billion cubic metres annually.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who was there at the launch, said the pipeline had “major international significance” and was “an answer to the problem of energy security.” The 30.5-kilometre pipeline from Turkmenistan’s southeast Dovletabad field will supply Iran’s Khangiran gas refinery initially with 6 billion cubic metres of gas per year, according to the Turkmen energy ministry.

When working at full capacity, the new pipeline will increase supply to Iran up to a total of 20 billion cubic metres, the two leaders said. This figure includes supply from an existing pipeline between southwest Turkmenistan and Iran, which opened in 1997 and has a capacity of around 8 billion cubic metres.

The two leaders flew in by helicopter to the ceremony in a desert region after holding talks this morning. They turned a wheel to open the gas pipeline, which was labelled “Turkmenistan-Iran.” Several thousand people attended the ceremony, including children holding flags of each country. Portraits of the two leaders decorated the site.

Ahmadinejad was set to fly back to Ashgabat and leave Turkmenistan later in the day. Previously, gas from the Dovletabad field, close to the Iranian border, was used exclusively for export to Russia but Turkmenistan hailed the new project as a means of diversifying its exports from its former Soviet overlord.