(Interfax) - Turkmenistan will suspend gas deliveries to Russia for eight days from July 25 due to ongoing repair work on the Central Asia - Center trunk gas pipeline, which pumps gas northward.
"Gas supplies will be suspended at the request of Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom (RTS: GAZP)," the Turkmen Oil and Gas Industry and Mineral Resources Ministry has announced, reports Trend.
Turkmen natural gas deliveries via the Central Asia - Center-IV pipeline will be suspended fully for eight days from July 25, 2006, and overall daily gas export volume will decrease by 75 million - 80 million cubic meters, given repair work at the Dovletabad-Deryalyk-Europe stretch, which runs across Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan," the ministry said.
The Central Asia - Center gas pipeline, laid across Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia in the Soviet era, is in need of reconstruction. Gazprom, the gas transportation operator, had said on many occasions that it was ready to modernize the pipeline in order to increase its annual handling capacity from the current 44 billion cubic meters to 80 billion cubic meters. sd md