China will grant energy-rich Turkmenistan a three-billion-dollar loan to develop a lucrative South Yolotan gas reserve, newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan reported on Saturday.
"China will loan Turkmenistan three billion dollars for the industrial development of the huge gas field of South Yolotan in the country's south-east," the newspaper wrote.
South Yolotan is estimated to hold up to 14 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and is likely to prove the fourth or fifth largest gas reserve in the world.
A new 7,000-kilometre (4,350-mile) gas pipeline linking Turkmenistan to China is due to be completed by 2009.
In recent years, energy-hungry China has faced growing competition from Russia and Europe for access to Central Asia's oil and gas reserves.
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