Turkmenistan’s gas company says Gazprom has yet to pay for Turkish gas this year
An official release from Turkmenistan’s state-run Turkmengas claimed that Russia’s gas giant Gazprom (ticker: OGZPY) had “become an insolvent partner … due to the continued global economic crisis and Western sanctions against Russia.”
“Since the beginning of 2015, Gazprom has not paid its debts to Turkmengas for delivered volumes of natural gas.” The release did not specify the amount of gas shipped to Russia by Turkmengas, or how much Gazprom owed.
Source: Forbes
The press release is likely an escalation in a war of words between the two countries, which started at the end of 2014 when Gazprom announced it planned to cut imports of natural gas from Turkmenistan to 4 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2015, down 64% from the year before, reports Reuters.
Gazprom has decreased imports of natural gas from Turkmenistan substantially since 2008, when the company bought 40 bcm. Russia’s gas giant said that progress in natural gas exploration elsewhere has made the purchase of gas from Turkmenistan unprofitable.
The sharp decrease in natural gas exports to Russia, and lackluster demand from Iran, leaves China as Turkmenistan’s last major natural gas buyer. China purchases roughly 30 bcm of Turkish gas annually and plans to double that volume by 2020.
