This year Turkmenistan , the biggest natural gas producer in Central Asia, is going to sell up to 38.5 bcm of gas to Iran and China against 37 bcm last year, a source from the government told Reuters.
“This year we plan to export 8.5 bcm of gas to Iran and up to 30 bcm to China. Last year we sold 9 and 28 bcm of gas, respectively,” he added.
The same source said that in 2016 gas production will increase up to 75 bcm against 74 bcm in 2015.
Russian Gasprom company, which was buying natural gas in Turkmenistan on the basis of the contract signed in 2003, terminated the deal in early January 2016.
According to Gasprom, it was planned to reduce purchase of Turkmenistan gas by almost three times – from 11 bcm in 2014 to 4 bcm of gas. Information about volume of gas purchased last year is not available.