Turkmenistan started work on a $2 billion gas pipeline Monday as the resource-rich but isolated Central Asian nation seeks to diversify its energy customers away from Russia.

Russia and several other countries had eyed a major role in the project, but Turkmenistan announced in a surprise move earlier this month that it would design and build the pipeline on its own.

President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov personally oversaw the start of construction at the Shatlyk deposit 400 kilometers southeast of the capital, Ashgabat, amid much pomp and ceremony.

"It's an important event in the modern history of Turkmenistan . Effectively, we are strengthening the country's energy sector and will improve living standards of our people," Berdymukhamedov said at the ceremony.

"We will create a single gas-transportation system inside the country which will have not only an economic but also political significance.

"Thus Turkmenistan will make its own contribution to global energy security," he told an audience of several thousand people.

The 1,000-kilometer route, dubbed the East-West pipeline, will traverse the country from east to west and will have a gas capacity of 30 billion cubic meters a year.

Turkmenistan sits atop the world's fourth-biggest natural-gas reserves, and Russia , China and the West are all vying to expand their presence in the resource-rich nation.

In March 2009, Turkmenistan announced an international tender for the design and construction of the pipeline, and state energy firm Turkmengaz has said that around 70 companies from Russia , China and Europe expressed interest.

However, the results of the tender were never publicly announced.

Instead, Turkmenistan said earlier this month the country's energy companies would design and construct the pipeline, which is due to come online in June 2015, themselves.

"We will build relying only on our own resources," Berdymukhamedov said, estimating the construction costs at $2 billion.

The pipeline had been expected to bring gas to the Caspian pipeline backed by Russia , and Moscow had long expected to clinch the deal to help Turkmenistan with the project.

But ties between the two countries deteriorated last year when an explosion on the main gas pipeline between Turkmenistan and Russia halted Turkmen gas supplies, slashing the country's income from gas exports.

Turkmenistan , which is now seeking to diversify its energy customers, unveiled a new pipeline to transport Turkmen natural gas to China in December.

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