Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Feb. 20
By Huseyn Hasanov- Trend:
Turkmenistan has always fulfilled and continues fulfilling its obligations on gas export, a message from the country's Ministry of Oil and Gas Industry and Mineral Resources said Feb.20.
The remarks were made about Turkmenistan's obligations on gas supply to Russia, according to the message.
An explosion occurred on the Turkmen section of the Central Asia-Center gas pipeline in April 2009 due to the sharp decline in gas intake by Gazprom JSC, the ministry said. The export of Turkmen gas to Russia was temporarily suspended at that time.
The gas supply from Turkmenistan to Russia was resumed in January 2010. However, due to the position of Russia partners, the volume of Turkmen gas supply to Russia was reduced from 40-45 billion cubic meters to 11 billion cubic meters per year.
The Russian side announced the reduction of the volume of Turkmen gas purchases from 11 billion cubic meters to 4 billion cubic meters per year in 2015, said the Ministry of Oil and Gas Industry and Mineral Resources.
Deputy chairman of the board of Gazprom JSC Alexander Medvedev said in early February 2015 that Russia has decided to reduce the volume of gas purchases from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in order to meet the domestic and export demand with its own resources, the ministry said.
The ministry stressed that this once again shows that Turkmenistan hasn't violated its obligations on gas supply to Russia.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said in April 2014 that first of all, it is important to ensure the supply of gas to foreign markets in the volumes envisaged in the agreements signed with importers, including Russia.
Edited by CN