COMMERCIAL AGREEMENT ON TURKMEN GAS SIGNED.

Publication: Monitor Volume: 5 Issue: 51

On March 12 in Ashgabat, President Saparmurat Niazov and other Turkmen officials signed a commercial agreement on gas deliveries with Turkey’s Energy Minister Zia Aktas and the Botas state company. The Turkish side guarantees that it will purchase 16 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas annually for a period of thirty years. Turkey is expected to transit a further 14 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas annually to third countries. The gas is to be delivered from eastern Turkmenistan through the planned trans-Caspian-South Caucasus pipeline, the contract for which was signed last month by Turkmenistan with the American consortium PSG, which is made up of the Bechtel and General Electric corporations (see the Monitor, February 23; Fortnight in Review, February 26). PSG head Edward Smith initialed the March 12 commercial agreement, which is considered an essential complement to the pipeline construction project. The pipeline is projected to be built from 2000 to 2002. Turkey and Turkmenistan are to reach final agreement on prices before May 30, 1999 (Turkish Daily News, Turan, March 13).

KYRGYZ PRIME MINISTER REPORTED IN INTENSIVE CARE IN MOSCOW.