To make good on that promise, MEND destroyed an offshore loading platform and trunkline of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and kidnapped nine of the company's foreign employees (including three Americans).
Under the framework deal with China, Turkmenistan planned to export 5 bcm to China in 2010 using the first trunk of the Central Asia-China pipeline, and to then increase these exports to 40 bcm per year by 2012, when the second trunkline of the pipeline is to be completed.