Gazprom Dissatisfied With Turkmen Gas Price

Though Russia has an ongoing dispute with Turkmenistan over the price it pays for Turkmen gas, it continues to purchase it.

Russia does not plan on bringing up the issue of termination of the intergovernmental agreements on the purchase of gas from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan at this point, said Gazprom’s Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee Valery Golubev.

"Turkmenistan isn't showing a willingness to come to a compromise with Russia on the gas price issue, Golubev said, adding that the contract on gas purchases from Turkmenistan was concluded at a high price level, but, since that time, world gas prices have gone down and gas purchases from Turkmenistan have become unprofitable for Gazprom, Interfax reported.

Gazprom decreased the volume of Turkmen gas purchases from 10.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2014 to 4 bcm in 2015.

Gazprom announced in July that it had lodged a case against Turkmenistan's Turkmengaz at the international arbitration court in Stockholm over the price in a supply contract.

Two weeks before that, Turkmenistan accused Gazprom of not paying for gas supplied from the Central Asian country this year.

According to Forbes magazine, the purchasing price stood at $240/thousand cubic meters (tcm) - lower than the price Gazprom charges its customers in Europe.

However, the statistical report of the Russian Customs Service indicates that from January to August 2015 the average export price of Russian gas totalled $240/tcm.

In 2008, Gazprom bought more than 40 bcm of Turkmen gas. In 2009-2014, Russia's annual gas imports from Turkmenistan stood at 10-11 bcm.