MARCH 2 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has agreed to boost by 50% the amount of gas it supplies to China, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on its website. The deal for Turkmenistan to supply China with 60b cubic metres of gas a year will be finalised in the second half of 2011, the NDRC said.
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(News report from Issue No. 30, published on March 7 2011)
FEB. 20 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – During a week-long visit to China by Turkmenistan’s deputy PM Maisa Yazmuhammedova, China’s state councillor Liu Yandong thanked Turkmenistan for its support over Chinese policy towards Taiwan, Tibet and Uyghur separatists in the west of the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 28, published on Feb. 21 2011)
JAN. 24 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s GDP will grow by 4-5% in 2011 against an earlier forecast rise of 3.1%, media quoted economy minister Zhanar Aitzhanova as saying. Inflation in Turkmenistan was 4.8% in 2010, Reuters quoted the state statistics agency as saying.
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(News report from Issue No. 24, published on Jan. 24 2011)
JAN. 13/5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso visited Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to try to persuade them to supply gas to Europe through planned routes running from the Caspian Sea across the South Caucasus. EU officials said Azerbaijan had committed to supplying gas and that Turkmenistan had pledged closer cooperation in 2011.
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(News report from Issue No. 23, published on Jan. 17 2011)
JAN. 11 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov sacked the head of the country’s gas company, Dovlet Mommayev, after only 3 months in the job, media reported quoting state TV. Amanali Khanaliyev, previously head of building pipelines, is the new head of Turkmengaz.
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(News report from Issue No. 23, published on Jan. 17 2011)
JAN. 11 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan gas production rose by 16.5% in 2010, deputy prime minister Baymurad Khojamukhamedov said on TV. Turkmenistan rarely releases data on gas production although last year it did say it wanted to boost production to 100b cubic metres, an increase of 30%.
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(News report from Issue No. 23, published on Jan. 17 2011)
JAN. 10 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iran’s Interior Minister, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, said he wanted the country to establish itself as an energy transit corridor between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf, media reported. Mr Najjar made the comments during an official trip to Oman.
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(News report from Issue No. 22, published on Jan. 11 2011)
JAN. 5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, said he will visit Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan from Jan. 13 – Jan. 15 to persuade them to commit to the proposed Nabucco gas pipeline. The $11b Nabucco pipeline is key to Europe’s plan to reduce its reliance on Russia for energy.
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(News report from Issue No. 22, published on Jan. 11 2011)
DEC. 21 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan suspended the operations of a local subsidiary of Russian mobile operator MTS for one month. Media reported around 80% of Turkmenistan’s mobile phone users have a contract with Barash Communications Technologies Inc., the MTS subsidiary. The Turkmen government did not give a reason for the suspension.
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(News report from Issue No. 21, published on Jan. 4 2011)
DEC. 12 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — It is still a long way off, but Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India took a determined step forward on Dec. 11, 2010 to turning a 15-year-old pipe dream into reality.
The four countries finally signed an accord which binds them to building a 1,700km gas pipeline from the Dauletabad gas field in southeast Turkmenistan across Afghanistan and Pakistan to Fazilka, an Indian border town. It has been talked about since 1995 but war in Afghanistan and a lack of political will delayed the project.
Now, they want the so-called TAPI pipeline operating by 2014 even though the route goes through Taliban controlled parts of Afghanistan. Estimates put the cost of the pipeline, which will have a capacity of 33b cubic metres a year, at between $3.3b and $7.5b.
For the US, the pipeline is important because it acts as an alternative to a proposed pipeline running to Pakistan and India from Iran.
TAPI has gained momentum, largely because India has pushed to increase its energy import options and because of a leadership change in Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan’s leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, president since Dec. 21 2006, has been eagerly courting Western, Chinese and Iranian investors since an argument over gas prices with Russia in 2009.
Turkmenistan, which holds the world’s fourth largest gas reserves, has a growing list of clients and an expanding web of pipelines feeding these customers directly with its gas. If TAPI goes to plan, Turkmenistan is set to become an important energy supplier to South Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 19, published on Dec. 13 2010)
