2.4.10. Lower Price Demands by Importer and Technical Issues in 2009

In April of 2009, another dispute occurred between Turkmenistan and Russia. On 9 April, there was an explosion on the Central Asia—Centre gas pipeline because Russia significantly decreased the offtake from the pipeline. With the decreased gas demand and prices in Europe, Russia cut the imports from Turkmenistan, maintaining its own exports to Europe. Turkmenistan blamed Russia for the accident, while Russia answered that Turkmenistan was informed about the decrease in offtake and could have reduced the flow of gas into the pipeline. The price of Turkmen exports was around \$200/1000 m3. In May, Gazprom suggested a decrease in the contracted sales volume for the second quarter of the year by 80% or a decrease in the current price of around \$200/1000 m3, to which Turkmenistan did not agree. Gas supplies were resumed only in January 2010 at the annual volume of 11 bcm [48–51], considerably lower than the 70–80 bcm contracted in 2003.
