Russia, Turkmenistan In Talks On Draft Gas Partnership Agreement

Russian-Turkmen negotiations are through another round to draft a long-term agreement for gas industrial partnership, the Turkmen cabinet reports from Ashgabat. Led by Petr Nidzelsky, Deputy Minister of Power Industry, the Russian delegation includes ministerial experts and spokesmen of federal agencies and commercial companies. The delegates met at the negotiation table today with Yelly Gurbanmuradov, Turkmenistan's Deputy Prime Minister in charge of gas and petroleum industries, says our informant on the host government. Expected for a ten-year term, the upcoming agreement will include a sale-and-purchase contract for an annual 30 billion cubic metres of Turkmen-extracted natural gas eventually to increase the amount. A joint venture may be established for gas piping. A mainline from Turkmenistan to Russia will be updated for larger exports. Turkmenistan intends to export to Russia an approximate ten billion cu m of natural gas before the year ends, says the cabinet spokesman.