Turkmenistan, Central Asia's top natural gas exporter, cut its gas production in the first quarter of 2008, state media reported.
The country had said it would boost output this year to 81.5 billion cubic metres from last year's 72.3 billion cubic metres but the first quarter brought no increase, state-owned Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper said, citing the Finance Ministry.
"It was noted in a (finance ministry) report that a decrease in gas output due to seasonal factors of the winter period had virtually no effect on the industrial output growth rate," the paper wrote. It did not give any figures.
Rising prices compensated for the fall, it said.
Russia's Gazprom, currently the only buyer of Turkmen gas, agreed last year to pay $130 per thousand cubic metres (tcm) in the first half of 2008 and $160 per tcm in the second. In 2007 Gazprom bought Turkmen gas at $100 per tcm.
Turkmenistan exports about 50 billion cubic metres of gas annually. Starting from 2009, it plans to bring its price up to the level at which Gazprom resells its gas to Europe.
President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, at a government meeting on Monday, reiterated his intention to raise prices.
"Global commodity and fuel prices remain high and the demand for Turkmen energy is constantly growing," state news agency Turkmen Khabarlary quoted him as saying on Tuesday.
"Turkmenistan will base its pricing policy on these benign market conditions."
Source: Reuters
