“Gazprom”: Turkmenistan is a traditional partner of Russia in gas sector

Upon completion of an audience with the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov, Board Chairman of PJSC “Gazprom” Alexey Miller gave an interview to TDH. 

- Turkmenistan, possessing the richest gas reserves, is our traditional partner in the energy sector. Currently, an intergovernmental agreement between the Russian Federation and Turkmenistan on cooperation in the gas sector until 2028 and the signed contract with a similar period are in force. Recently, there was a “commercial pause”, which will end at the end of 2018. 

In this regard, during the meeting, they discussed the resumption of the Turkmen gas purchase by Gazprom, which, according to our plans, will happen in the nearest future – from January 1, 2019. 

We are well familiar with the great opportunities of Turkmenistan, and at the same time we observe growing markets which are traditionally supplied with gas. Therefore, the demand-supply situation is currently very and very good. Presently, our main agreement is an agreement of that we are proceeding to the concrete substantive negotiations on the resumption of Turkmen gas purchases in close cooperation with our Turkmen colleagues starting now till the end of the year. 

At the same time, we also touched upon other areas of cooperation – the processing and gas chemical industries. In general, the meeting was held in a friendly and very constructive atmosphere. 

As for the volume of gas deliveries and other issues of contractual relations, today the talks will be held at the technical level. We expect that these agreements will be reached as soon as possible. 

During the meeting with the honorable President of Turkmenistan, we discussed joint projects in Turkmenistan. I think, we will consider this set of issues in 2019. We have already identified such opportunities. 

We are very pleased that in Turkmenistan “Gazprom” is considered as a reliable partner in the implementation of major projects in your country, far less we have the highest competence in this area. 

But currently, the priorities that we need to resolve right in the near months are the issues of Turkmen gas purchase, starting from January 1, 2019.