Turkmenistan warned Russia on Saturday against attempts to exert influence over the natural gas supply chain in Central Asia and China after Moscow stated that more countries could join its "Gas Union" with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan all supply gas to China via a pipeline that crosses the three countries, with the majority of the gas coming from Turkmenistan, as the other two countries face strong domestic demand growth.
Last year, Russia, seeking to open new markets for its gas in Asia following Western sanctions, announced plans to establish a gas union with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan that would facilitate the shipment and export of gas to these countries and others. Thus far, the only practical step announced by the union has been a plan to reverse the flow of another pipeline linking Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan to Russia, enabling Russian company Gazprom to ship gas to Uzbekistan, which has started experiencing energy shortages.
A few days ago, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that the gas union might expand due to interest from other countries in joining but did not name any of these countries. In response, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry stated that despite the ambiguity of the Russian statements, Ashgabat wants to clarify that nobody consulted them about the possibility of adding new suppliers to the pipeline to China. The ministry's statement noted, "The Turkmen side considers this approach ambiguous and unacceptable, and our country views it as contrary to international law and established practices in the gas sector."
Russia used to be the main buyer of Turkmen gas before the Chinese pipeline was built, but its share of Turkmen exports is now minimal, and reversing the pipeline between Russia and Central Asia would put an end to those shipments.
