Turkmenistan has earlier said that it will increase production to 81.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2008, from 72.3bcm in 2007, but there has been no increase in production. It is widely anticipated that rising prices have compensated for the fall in production volumes.
Russian gas monopoly Gazprom is reportedly the only buyer of Turkmen gas and has bought gas volumes at $100 per thousand cubic meters (tcm) in 2007.
Gazprom is expected to pay $130 per tcm for the first half of 2008 and $160 per tcm in the second half of 2008.
Reuters noted that Turkmenistan exports around 50bcm of gas per year and is seeking to increase the price level of exported gas to the level that Gazprom charges from its European customers.
