Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Feb. 18 / Trend H.Hasanov /
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a letter to Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on the occasion of his reelection as president of Turkmenistan said that he appreciates "the continued focus of the Turkmen president to the problems of Russian-Turkmen relations, based on a long tradition of good neighborliness and mutual trust".
"Your convincing victory in the election indicates people's support for reforms carried out under your leadership, aimed at further socio-economic development," the message said.
The Russian President believes common mood for mutual cooperation will continue to successfully implement the significant potential of bilateral relations in various fields.
Turkmenistan is a long-standing traditional partner of Russia in many areas of cooperation, especially in the field of energy.
Turkmenistan's gas comes to Russia via Central-Asia - Center (CAC) pipeline through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. It was commissioned in the late sixties with a capacity of up to 80 billion cubic meters a year. Over time, the capacities of pipeline decreased up to 40-50 billion cubic meters per year, and a radical reconstruction is required. The buyer of Turkmen gas is Gazprom (Russia) which signed in 2003 an agreement with Turkmenistan on gas supplies for 25 years.
For several reasons, the CAC does not work at full capacity. Russia stopped importing Turkmen gas in April 2009 because of a breakdown.
Technical issues have been resolved, but under the influence of the global recession, Russia since 2010 has reduced the purchase up to 10 billion cubic meters of gas, which is four times less than in 2008. Recently it became possible to supply Russia with raw materials not only from the eastern fields in Turkmenistan, but also from the west - due to the construction of a connecting line from the Caspian Sea coast, where the Malaysian Petronas is expected to start industrial gas production at offshore block.