Natural Gas: U.S. officials woo Turkmenistan’s president

ALMATY, Kazakhstan: American officials, striving to weaken the grip of Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned energy monopoly, in energy-rich Central Asia, are forcefully wooing the president of Turkmenistan on his first visit to the United States.

The president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, in the first trip by a Turkmen leader to the United States since 1998, went to New York to attend activities Wednesday related to the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. He met Tuesday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the United Nations.
U.S. officials say they want Berdymukhammedov to come away with the understanding that he has other options for developing extensive natural gas deposits and for shipping the fuel to market.

The United States wants to encourage the development of hydrocarbon sources outside the Middle East, while at the same time providing European countries with an alternative to the giant Gazprom, which provides nearly a quarter of the Continent’s supply of natural gas.

Russia and, more recently, China have received the bulk of natural gas exports from Turkmenistan, a former Soviet republic.

Russia buys 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year at below-market prices.

Russia also controls all export routes for Turkmen natural gas and it plans to expand its main northern pipeline in order to double its purchases.

International Herald Tribune