On 27 March representatives of the Russian gas giant “Gazprom” headed by Chairperson of the Board of Directors Aleksey Miller paid a working visit to Turkmenistan. “Gazprom” press center reports that Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov met with Mr.
Miller in Ashgabat.
According to the press-release issued by the Russian gas company, in the course of negotiations the sides discussed the issues related to energy cooperation.
The Turkmen media outlets did not report about the forthcoming visit.
In October 2018 the Gazprom CEO announced that Turkmen gas supplies were expected to be resumed starting from 1 January 2019.
Miller was quoted as saying: “As regards the volumes of gas imports and other issues pertaining to contractual obligations, the technical talks will be held later today. We expect these agreements to be reached in a short-term perspective”.
However, the gas supplies to Russia have not been resumed.
The negotiations, which have been underway since the autumn of 2018, were preceded by a conflict between “Gazprom” and “Turkmengaz”. For a few years the sides threatened each other with filing a lawsuit in the International Court of Arbitration.
In 2015 “Turkmengaz” said that “Gazprom” had not settled payments and announced the Russian holding insolvent.
In response, “Gazprom” filed a lawsuit to Stockholm Court of Arbitration demanding that price for Turkmen gas supplies be reviewed and $5 billion of overpaid amount be refunded.
In early 2016 “Gazprom” halted the import of Turkmen gas and later the same year signed the gas supply contract with “Uzbekneftegaz”.