Russia doubled its gas purchases in Turkmenistan in 2021, Russian Ambassador Alexander Blohin said today at a briefing on summing up the results of Russian-Turkmen relations in 2021.

“The volume of gas that Russia buys from Turkmenistan this year will be very solid. Compared to last year, it is likely to double. I think it will be about 10 billion cubic meters,” the ambassador said.

According to Blohin, there is a likelihood of an increase in the purchases of blue fuel next year, but this is the subject of negotiations between “Gazprom” and “Turkmengas”.

Russian Gazprom resumed purchases of Turkmen gas in 2019 after stopping them in 2016, signing a five-year contract for the import of 5.5 billion cubic meters per year.

Speaking about the prospects for the supply of Turkmen gas to Europe through the Caspian Sea, Blohin stressed that this is an economically rather difficult task that should not be viewed as an end in itself.

According to the Russian ambassador, today Turkmenistan has significant opportunities for diversifying gas exports. As one of the examples, the diplomat named the recently concluded deal on spot gas supplies to Azerbaijan via Iran.

There are also serious prospects for increasing up to 60 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas to China, as well as 33 billion cubic meters through the future gas pipeline through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India. Today's pipelines allow pumping up to 40 billion cubic meters to Russia. So you just need to increase the volume of gas production, which Turkmenistan is doing, Blohin noted.