OCT. 10 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan will resume sending gas to Russia in January, Alexei Miller, the Gazprom CEO, was quoted by official Turkmen media as saying on a trip to Ashgabat, giving Turkmenistan’s Pres. Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov a much-needed political boost (Oct. 10).
Turkmen gas exports to Russia were slashed in 2014 during a row over pricing and cut altogether in 2016 during a Russian economic downturn that was triggered by an energy price collapse.
The cut hurt Turkmenistan economically and left it overly reliant on China as its only gas supply client. Its economy has also been hard hit by the drop in energy prices. The economic news coming out of Turkmenistan has been dire, with Mr Berdymukhamedov being forced to cut Soviet-era subsidies on utilities.
Mr Miller said exact details of new gas imports needed to be worked out.
“The intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Turkmenistan on cooperation in the gas sphere is valid until the end of 2018. It was paused for commercial reasons and will be renewed by the end of 2018,” Mr Miller was quoted as saying by official Turkmen media. “In this regard, we discussed the resumption of the procurement of Turkmen gas by Gazprom, which will start in January 2019.”
Analysts speculated on the timing of Russia resuming gas exports from Turkmenistan. Some said that it was linked to Russia’s efforts to dampen the increased lure of gas sales to Europe from the region.
ENDS
>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018