ASHGABAD (Commodity Online) : Central Asian republic, Turkmenistan said Wednesday it has completed the construction of a gas pipeline to Iran that will help ease its dependence on Russia-owned export routes.

The pipeline, which is scheduled to go online in December, will pump natural gas from the Dovletabat gas field in southeastern Turkmenistan, which has so far only been delivered to Russia.

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Moscow has a near monopoly on the export of Turkmen gas through its network of ageing Soviet-era pipelines, and Ashgabad has been seeking to diversify its export routes after a pricing row with Russian energy giant Gazprom this year.

Turkmenistan is believed to hold the world's fourth largest natural gas reserves.

Ashgabad announced earlier this year that it would be increasing gas deliveries to Iran from eight billion cubic metres a year to 14 billion cubic metres as part of its diversification strategy.

The Central Asian state is also in the final stages of construction of a 7,000 kilometre (4,350 mile) pipeline to China which will pump up to 40 billion cubic metres of gas per year.

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