Natural Gas Strategy of Turkmenistan

Central Asia and the Caucasus

Abstract

Turkmenistan, one of the Central Asian Countries, is very rich in natural resources, especially natural gas. The president of Turkmenistan, Niyazov, has dreamed of his country being the “Central Asian Kuwait” with its natural resources, but so far it seems to be nothing but a dream.
Turkmenistan is landlocked and it has to negotiate with the countries around to build pipelines to export its natural gas. But it locates among the rival natural gas-producing countries and the negotiation would be very tough. When it became independent in 1991, only the pipeline route it had was to regional power of CIS, Russia, via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, which meant that Turkmenistan had no option but to sell its gas to Russia, or other countries using Russian pipeline. From this fact, it can be deduced that Turkmenistan would be weak in negotiating the price and the condition of natural gas export with Russia. However, Turkmenistan obtains concessions from Russia on gas talks.
In this essay, natural gas strategy of Turkmenistan is analyzed. It will help understanding the diplomacy of minor states when they are under difficult conditions.