Central Asian and Caspian Gas Production and the Constraints on Export

The confirmation of South Yolotan (Galkynysh) in Turkmenistan as one of the world’s largest natural gas fields has renewed interest in the Central Asian/Caspian region’s potential as a gas supplier. But reality has confounded many expectations. Apart from traditional export routes to Russia and Iran, the only new corridor opened up has been to China. My detailed survey of the region,published by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and downloadable here, focuses mainly on the four large gas producers (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan).

Tackling (or not) natural gas flaring and venting

Progress, and lack of it, by a multilateral initiative to cut down gas flaring - an oil industry practice that pours particularly large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - is discussed in an  article on Gas Flaring Reduction Progress, here. The article also mentions cold venting, which has an even worse greenhouse effect, since it releases pure methane (which has twenty-plus times more greenhouse effect per cubic metre than carbon dioxide).

Russian gas: the next ten years

The way that Russia produces and markets natural gas will change substantially over the next decade, I wrote in the Oxford Energy Forum - now downloadable here (see page 12). Production will shift geographically, away from western Siberia; the corporate make-up will change, with Gazprom ceding share to others; domestic market liberalisation will probably the the most important determinant of change, with a further decline in Russia's share of the European market a possible corollary. And while exports to Europe become less important, Russia will continue to try to open up Asian markets.