Central Asia fills Gazprom's short-term needs

摘要

Gazprom's top brass went on a series of charm offensives in the autumn and these are now bearing fruit. Gas is flowing once more from Turkmenistan, while an export pipeline to Azerbaijan is now importing gas to Russia. And Uzbekistan is on-side too. Russia's Gazprom resumed buying Turkmen gas on January 9 following a halt in supplies of several months. But the volume is down, from 50 billion cubic meters/year to 30 Bcm/year. Unlike previous years, Turkmenistan is now exporting gas to China and selling more to Iran, which might have limited its ability to meet Russia's previous demand.