MARY, Turkmenistan - Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov jointly announced the completion of the first-phase construction of the Galkynysh gas field here on Wednesday.

The Galkynysh gas field, located in the south of Turkmenistan and jointly developed by China and the Central Asian country, is another fine example of bilateral energy cooperation for mutual benefits, Xi said at a ceremony.

The project, testifying to the willingness of the Chinese and Turkmen peoples to boost development through cooperation, will inject fresh and strong impetus to energy cooperation between the two countries, Xi said.

By forging a strategic partnership, China and Turkmenistan have unleashed new opportunities for deepening their energy cooperation, he added.

For his part, Berdymukhamedov said energy cooperation between Turkmenistan and China is an important part of their strategic partnership, which has been driving the development of the Central Asian region as a whole.

Turkmenistan is willing to enhance cooperation with China in such areas as natural gas exploitation and transmission, and global energy security, to realize common development and prosperity.

The Galkynysh gas field, with proved reserves of between four and six trillion cubic meters of natural gas, is the world's second largest gas field.