Turkmenistan: Gazprom Wants Ashgabat to Give Deep Discount on Natural Gas

Russian media outlets are reporting that the Kremlin-controlled conglomerate Gazprom is pushing for an almost 50 percent cut in the price it pays to the Turkmen government for natural gas.

A Gazprom delegation headed by Alexander Medvedev, the company's deputy board chairman, was in Ashgabat on June 23. Medvedev was expected to seek a downward revision in the gas pricing structure. Gazprom paid $300 per thousand cubic meters of gas (tcm) during the January-March period of this year, according to Kommersant. Medvedev will reportedly offer to pay $220/tcm for Turkmen gas during the third quarter of 2009, and $160/tcm for the fourth quarter of this year.