Gazprom Seeks to Grow Central Asia Markets
The CEO of Russian giant Gazprom Alexei Miller visited Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan March 27-28, eyeing new opportunities and expanding co-operation in these central Asian states, the company said.
During the Turkmenistan trip, Miller discussed gas import issues and long-term energy-related co-operation, while in Kyrgyzstan he talked about trebling sales and developing its upstream sector.
Gazprom stopped Turkmen gas imports in January 2017, but in October 2018 announced that it was planning to restart, buying 3bn m3/yr from the beginning of 2019 – a fifth of what it was exporting in the early 2010s, before the export pipeline exploded. Gazprom is also in negotiations to develop Turkmenistan's gas fields, but has declined to comment on those talks.
Gazprom has had an exclusive licence to import gas and distribute it in Kyrgyzstan since 2014, when it stopped taking gas from Uzbekistan. However Gazprom delivered just 304mn m3 in 2017, about a third of what it was in 2014, according to both Kyrgyzstan statistics committee and Gazprom reports. Gazprom has so far raised the gasification level in Kyrgyzstan from 22% in 2014 to 30% as of now.
Gazprom purchased 13.8bn m³ of gas from Kazakhstan in 2017, and re-exported 4.8bn m3 to the southern regions of Kazakhstan – including 1.7bn m3 of Uzbek gas – according to the company’s latest statistics. Gazprom also imported additional 5.5bn m3 Uzbek gas to -re-export to Europe.
Miller said that Gazprom has invested rubles 26.5bn ($410mn) in Kyrgyzstan's gas infrastructure since 2014 and plans to invest a further rubles 20bn by 2030 to increase gas deliveries to 1.2bn m3/yr.
It is also studying Kugart area and the Eastern Mailu-Suu IV block in Kyrgyzstan. The country’s reserves stand at 6bn m3 and produces below 33mn m3/yr.