Page 7 - FSUOGM Week 07 2022

FSUOGM COMMENTARY FSUOGM

is necessary to start discussing gas prices,” he be), the evident intent is to weave some fable
was cited as saying by Turkmen state media. about the government successfully fulfilling a
“Turkmen and Chinese specialists will operate booster jab campaign.
on the basis of global precedent in the field of Still, Berdimuhamedov is trying to set the
pricing for commercial pipeline gas.” example. Upon his return home from Beijing,
Only once an agreement on that point has he consented to undergo a three-day period of
been reached will Turkmenistan “consider the self-isolation.
participation of a Chinese company in the devel- Tajikistan has materialised as one new cus-
opment of the second phase of the Galkynysh tomer for Turkmen energy exports, specifically
field,” Berdimuhamedov then said. And again, in the form of liquefied petroleum gas. Tajik
Chinese investments will be reimbursed in the Energy Minister Daler Juma said on February
form of gas. 1 that Tajikistan in 2021 bought a relatively tri-
Trying to land on firm cost estimates for all fling 5,000 tonnes of LPG from Turkmenistan,
this may be a fool’s errand, but there are figures but that it will under a recently signed agreement
floating about out there. Turkmen media have be eligible to acquire “unlimited” amounts of the
mentioned estimates for the building of the fuel in future. For comparison’s sake, Tajikistan
1,000-kilometre Line D, which would have to imported 360,000 tonmes of LPG from Kazakh-
traverse complicated Tajik terrain, of $6.7bn. stan last year, and another 50,000 tonnes from
And it has been assumed that $10bn could be Russia. Sputnik news agency reports, without
spent on the next phase of Galkynysh, although citing the source of its information, that around
this is pure guesswork. 50-60% of motorists in Tajikistan use LPG.
With those kinds of eye-watering figures – Spirit-drinkers in Turkmenistan will have
and they are very likely outdated and conserv- woken up with a pre-emptive hangover on Feb-
ative estimates by this point – it is not hard to ruary 1 with the news that vodka prices have
see why Berdimuhamedov hopes to drive a hard gone up by 5%. RIA-Novosti news agency, which
bargain with Beijing and thereby secure returns apparently keeps a close eye on such matters,
for the Turkmen state coffers within a reasona- reported that half-litre bottles of the popular
ble timeframe. This also adds an additional per- Arassa brand sell in state stores for 39.6 manat
spective to the urgency with which Ashgabat has ($2 at black market exchange rates, $11.30 at the
latterly pursued the trans-Afghan TAPI pipeline official rate). That is 1.9 manat more than a bottle
project. The more prospective buyers Turkmen- was before, RIA notes.
istan has, the harder it can bargain. Still, this costlier boozing should not trou-
Turning to more immediate questions, China ble state employees, as the Russian news agency
has pledged the delivery of an additional con- appeared to argue further down in its report (not
signment of 5mn unspecified COVID-19 vac- available online). As is customary, it noted, sala-
cines to Turkmenistan. ries for civil servants, pensions and other forms
Turkmenistan has been lying through its of welfare went up by 10% on January 1, thereby
teeth on its COVID-19 crisis, but this is what maintaining vodka price rises well within the
it claims so far: The country has recorded zero corridor of salary inflation.
infections and has, according to Health Min- Akhal-Teke is a weekly Eurasianet col-
ister Nurmuhammet Amannepesov, admin- umn compiling news and analysis from
istered vaccinations to 80% of the population. Turkmenistan.
With an additional 5mn vaccine doses then, if This article originally appeared on
any of this is to be believed (which it should not Eurasianet here.™

Week 07 16•February•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P7