Elvira Kadyrova
The volume of natural gas supplies from Turkmenistan to the Russian multinational Gazprom has been increasing steadily since the resumption of flows in 2019. This year it may reach 9 bcm (billion cubic meters).
As reported by Interfax, Turkmenistan supplied 2.2 bcm of gas to Gazprom during the first quarter of 2021. This is nearly double the volume of the same period for the last year, which was 1.3 bcm.
Based on this data, without making adjustments for the seasonal fluctuations, it can be projected that the Turkmen gas supplies to Gazprom are likely to reach 8.8 bcm this year.
In January 2021, the Russian media reported that according to the gas strategy for 2021-2035, Russia intended to increase annual gas imports from Turkmenistan to 5.5 billion cu m per year and from Uzbekistan – to 8 billion cu m per year as compared to 2019.
However, there are quite possibly some adjustments to the strategy, since Uzbekistan has not resumed the gas sale to Russia this year. On the contrary, Gazprom is re-exporting Turkmen gas to Uzbekistan. In 2020, 0.9 bcm of Turkmen gas was delivered by Gazprom to Uzbekistan, and in Q1 2021 – 1.5 bcm.
Deliveries from another Central Asian supplier, Kazakhstan, show a downward trend. In 2019, Gazprom purchased 11.6 bcm of Kazakh gas, in 2020 – 5.7 bcm. In Q1 2021 supplies declined to 0.6 bcm (compared to 2.2 bcm Q1 2020).
Turkmenistan resumed gas supplies to Russia in 2019.
Turkmen natural gas is attractive in terms of quality. Its sulfur content is the lowest among all the gas producers in the region. /// nCa, 23 June 2021