Turkmenistan Reacts Angrily to Gazprom's Gas Reserve Claims

Turkmenistan has reacted angrily to Russia's claim that the country does not have gas reserves of any great size, despite current estimates putting the potential gas reserves among the largest in the world.

Turkmenistan's foreign ministry on Saturday issued a statement disputing Russian Gazprom's estimates of Turkmen gas reserves, following comments from Gazprom deputy chief executive Alexander Medvedev.

Mr. Medvedev made his comments during an interview on Russian television on Friday the 18 November. During the interview, he cast aspersions on current reserve estimates for Turkmenistan, saying that seismic studies conducted when the country was still part of the Soviet Union, showed much smaller reserves.

"I believe that there are no grounds [for the larger estimates] and no reason to make such statements that there is such a natural deposit with reserves of this scale," he said.

"The Foreign Ministry of Turkmenistan notes that such statements by the representative of Gazprom are extremely faulty and disrespectful of partnership relations in the energy sphere," the Turkmen statement said. "Particularly confusing is the fact that such a biased assessment was made public by a professional."

The Foreign Ministry pointed to estimates put forth by UK-based global consultancy firm Gaffney, Cline & Associates who put the potential reserves at a maximum of 26 trillion 200 billion cubic metres of gas last month.

"The Foreign Ministry of Turkmenistan views the public statements by Mr. Medvedev as another clumsy attempt to distort the real situation concerning the natural resources of Turkmenistan, in particular its gas reserves," the Turkmen statement said. "This occurs against the background of the increased attacks in the Russian media on Turkmenistan's independent energy policy.

"Turkmenistan, guided by its national interests, will continue cooperating with all stakeholders in the energy sphere on the basis of mutual respect, equal partnership and diversification of energy export routes to the world markets."