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).