Elena Petrova, Natalia Seibil

Following the oilmen, Gazprom starts a company to turn to East. But unlike Rosneft and its comrades, who managed to jump off the pipe onto tankers, it is not easy for the gas giant to perform such a trick. After a year and a half of sanctions and a year after the undermining of the Nord Stream, which put an end to gas cooperation with Europe, Gazprom gave birth to the Gas Union. Negotiations with Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have just begun, but it is already clear that the neighbors are not waiting for Russia if it harms their own interests.

Gazprom and Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan has heard about the triple «Gas Union», but no action is planned. The representative of the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan Ilyasov heard about the new Russian initiative, but his awareness ends there:

«Today, work is underway on the technical preparation of the Kazakhstan section of the Central Asia — Center main gas pipeline for the transportation of Russian gas through Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan. The work is scheduled to be completed on October 1, 2023,» says the speaker of the Ministry of Energy.

And no hint of big joint plans.

Gazprom and Uzbekistan

The situation with Uzbekistan is clear, because the country has to supply gas to China, but since it does not have its own gas, the fuel it receives from neighbors and resells is not enough to fulfill the contract. Marcel Salikhov, Director of the HSE Center for Economic Expertise, says:

— Uzbekistan does not have gas, but it has existing contracts for the supply of gas to China, which it does not fulfill. Therefore, it makes sense to agree with Uzbekistan that Russia supplies additional gas to Uzbekistan, and Uzbekistan increases exports to China. And the resulting profit is divided in some proportion.

Another situation is with another «partner» of Russia in the «Gas Union» — Turkmenistan.