Framework agreements on a Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline (TAPI) are scheduled for signing by high-level officials of the four countries on December 11 in Ashgabat (Turkmen Television, Press Trust of India, December 8, 9). Its economics and its political symbolism aside, TAPI’s implementation is hardly conceivable on... MORE

A few years ago it was common to refer to Russia as an “Energy Superpower.” High global energy prices prior to the global financial crisis and Russia’s control over Central Asian oil and gas exports underscored the seemingly irrefutable proposition of Moscow’s influence. Yet, this... MORE

On October 11, Turkmen President, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, visited Qatar and met with the country’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Khamad al-Tani, concluding a series of agreements in the energy, trade, and economic sphere (ITAR-TASS, October 11). The visit marks intensified efforts by Turkmenistan to diversify its... MORE

On October 28, Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement strongly contradicting the Russian government’s views on the bilateral gas trade and on Turkmen gas export policy in general. The statement follows six days after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and a governmental delegation held... MORE

Turkmen President, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov’s, September 16 statement, explicitly linking the Turkmen East-West gas pipeline with the European Union-backed Nabucco project (EDM, September 17), is not only a boost for Nabucco, but also a blow to Gazprom’s rival project South Stream. As Moscow analysts recognize, Berdimuhamedov’s... MORE

On September 14 in Baku, the heads of state endorsed the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector (AGRI), a project to import natural gas from Azerbaijan to Romania and onward to Hungary. The project involves the liquefaction of gas for shipment by tankers across the Black Sea from Georgia... MORE

Russia’s Gazprom has proposed to the German RWE company to join Gazprom’s South Stream pipeline project. According to German business press reports, Gazprom Vice-President, Aleksandr Medvedev, has approached senior RWE management with this proposal. RWE, however, is a stakeholder in the EU-backed Nabucco project. Gazprom’s... MORE

Since Turkmenistan’s independence in 1991, the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan (Turkmenistanyn Demokratik Partiyasy) and its corresponding Revival (Galkynysh) political movement have been the country’s only officially-registered political entities. Now, after three years in power, it appears that President, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, may at last be interested... MORE

The start of construction on the East-West Turkmen pipeline (Turkmenistan Starts Construction of East-West Pipeline, EDM June 8) marks the third phase of Turkmenistan’s gas export diversification strategy. In just three years, Turkmenistan has ended Moscow’s 50-year old monopsony, working instead with China and Iran... MORE

Construction work began on May 31 on Turkmenistan’s East-West pipeline. The line is projected to run from the main gas fields in the country’s east, to the Turkmen Caspian shore in the west. When completed, the East-West pipeline would deliver gas volumes for export to... MORE