The temporary gas supply deal between “Turkmengas” and “Gazprom” expired on 1 July, 2019.
None of the sides has published the information on the contract extension despite the fact that in mid May Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Anatoliy Yanovsky reported that the possibility of concluding a five-year contract was under review, pursuant to which Russia might import up to about 10 billion cubic meters of gas a year.
On 28 June, two days before the expiry of the agreement, Gazprom Chairperson Alexey Miller
gave a press conference which implies that no considerable increase in the volume of gas deliveries from Central Asia countries are envisaged.
According to Miller, who quotes the news agency RNS, in the course of this year and within the next two years the Russian company intends to import “slightly over” 20 billion cubic meters of gas from Central Asia.
At the same time, in 2018 when “Gazprom” did not import Turkmen gas, the volumes of gas supplies from Central Asia amounted to 19,3 billion cubic meters.
It should be highlighted that the supplies of Turkmen gas to Russia were resumed in mid April, 2019. Later it became known that Gazprom intends to purchase 1,155 billion cubic meters until 1 July.
Judging by Miller’s comment, within the next two years the volume of Turkmen gas supplies will remain at the level of about 1 billion cubic meters a year.