Turkmen Leader Destroyed Ukraine's Dreams On Russian Gas

Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov made a decisive step in the tripartite Russian-Ukrainian-Turkmen relations in the gas industry yesterday by destroying Ukraine?s last hope to buy the gas bypassing Gazprom, Russian business daily kommersant reported yesterday.

Wednesday talks between Ukraine and Turkmenistan on the purchase of the Turkmen gas fell through. Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov stated that the long-term export agreement could not be signed without Russia?s assent. The parties also did not come to terms on the price. The Turkmen president reminded his Ukrainian colleagues that they had not paid in full for the gas supplied.

In December 2003, Gazprom signed an agreement on the purchase of Turkmenistan?s all export gas for 2007-2028. Ukraine also sought to seal a similar agreement with the Turkmens this year. Yet, Alexey Miller, Gazprom?s CEO, said this summer that he doubted Turkmenistan?s ability to substantially increase the extraction.

After yesterday?s statement of Saparmurat Niyazov the Ukrainian has no chances to get extra gas: from the moment on, it will have to coordinate all its actions with Gazprom. The Russian gas monopolist did not comment on the failure of the Ukrainian delegation yesterday.