ASHGABAT (Business Week) - China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), along with companies from South Korea and the United Arab Emirates, has won contracts worth $9.7 billion to develop the Yolotan natural gas field in Turkmenistan, one of the biggest five natural gas deposits in the world.

The field is estimated to hold about 6 trillion cu m of gas reserves.
The consortium includes CNPC, South Korea's LG International Corp and Hyundai Engineering Co as also the UAE's Gulf Oil & Gas Fze and Petrofac International Corp.
The Turkmen media quoted a CNPC spokesman as saying Thursday that he was not clear about the deal, but added that Turkmenistan was one of the most important natural gas markets for the company. He, however, did not elaborate on the particular deal.