Turkmenistan's president has fired the head of state gas company Turkmengaz for "serious shortcomings", the second time he has removed the company's head within a year, a government source said Sunday.
"President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov sacked the head of Turkmengaz Nury Mukhammedov for serious shortcomings at work," the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The source said that at a cabinet meeting on Friday Berdymukhamedov had criticised the activities of Turkmengaz and its leadership.
"He expressed dissatisfaction with the progress in a number of construction projects and exploiting new gas fields. He reprimanded Mukhammedov for slackening the tempo of the work."
Around one year ago Berdymukhamedov had fired Mukhammedov's predecessor as Turkmengaz chief, citing the identical reason of shortcomings at work. In January the minister for the oil and gas industry was also fired, with the same explanation given.
The reason for the shake-up in the top management in the isolated Central Asian state's hydrocarbon industry remains unclear. Turkmenistan sits on a colossal total gas reserves of 24.6 trillion cubic metres, Berdymukhamedov said last month. The European Union is eyeing the country as a major future source of energy.
Currently, Turkmenistan only exports gas directly to Russia, Iran and energy-hungry China.
There has on occasion been controversy about the size of Turkmenistan's much-touted gas reserves.
Russian media reports said last year Turkmenistan had massively overstated its gas reserves by two or three times but this was vehemently denied by the British firm that carried out an audit in 2008. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Turkmenistan became one of the world's most secretive states under the rule of eccentric leader Saparmurat Niyazov.
Comments
Comments are closed.