Turkmenistan’s export options are steadily shrinking despite being one of the world’s largest natural gas reserve holders. Geopolitical conflicts, security and financing issues as well as lack of sufficient infrastructure are acting as constraints for market diversification. According to the U.S. government’s Energy Information Agency, Turkmenistan has natural gas reserves of 265 trillion cubic feet,…
Central Asian states are believed to be walking a diplomatic tightrope after Turkey’s downing of the Russian fighter jet. Being allies and trade partners with Russia but having close partnership with Turkey at the same time puts Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Turkmen and Uzbeks in a difficult situation to hold a clear position. These are Turkic people…
Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj paid her second visit to Turkmenistan in the past six months, shortly after Prime Minister Modi visited Ashgabat last July. The TAPI gas pipeline and Ashgabat Agreement on trade and transit are the main issues on the table for discussion, respectively concerning India’s energy security and regional connectivity. The…
German oil and gas company DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG decided to leave Turkmenistan and put an end to plans to explore the Caspian Sea shelf. The decision to abandon commitments the company had made around Block 23 is explained by the company’s frustration with excess bureaucracy and corruption in Turkmenistan. DEA AG acquired rights to explore at…
We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Sebastien Peyrouse, Research Professor of International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. Dr. Peyrouse is an Associated Scholar with the Institute for International and Strategic Relations in Paris, France and has published widely on Central Asia, with an emphasis on Turkmenistan. He…
In April 2015 we had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Lawrence Markowitz, Assistant Professor of Political Science & Economics at Rowan University. Dr. Markowitz has researched and published extensively on the politics of state failure and authoritarian rule in Central Asia and the former Soviet Union. He is the author of State Erosion: Unlootable Resources…
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited Ashgabat, Turkmenistan yesterday to make a concerted effort to push the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project forward, which would supply energy consuming Pakistan and India with Turkmen natural gas. Sharif met with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and issued several memorandums of understanding to lay the framework for specific agreements regarding…
According to a new report published by Reuters, the European Union expects to begin receiving Turkmen natural gas as early as 2019. EU Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic, a Russian-speaking career diplomat from Slovakia, recently held meetings in Ashgabat with the foreign ministers of Turkmenistan, Turkey and Azerbaijan, meetings that were also attended by senior…
An EU Diplomat in Ashgabat, Denis Daniilidis has continued an initiative handed down from Brussels to push to restart talks on the Trans-Caspian pipeline, which would transport natural gas from fields in Turkmenistan across to Azerbaijan and then Turkey. The project has been stalling for years due to political, ecological, and financial uncertainties. The volume…
Dr. Alexander Cooley is Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, as well as Deputy Director for Social Sciences Programming at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute. Professor Cooley has researched and written extensively on the impact of external actors on the Former Soviet Union, and is the author of Great Games, Local Rules: The New Great…
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