Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov reshuffled the cabinet on Saturday, appointing an ally to the key position of energy minister amid intensive talks over the country's future gas export routes.
Turkmen state media reported that Berdymukhamedov had promoted Baimyrat Khodzhamukhamedov, a top manager at state gas corporation Turkmengas, to be the new oil and gas minister. His predecessor, Kurbanmurat Atayev, would become a director at a state energy company, which Turkmen media did not name.
Atayev was appointed minister in late 2005 by Turkmenistan's former president Saparmurat Niyazov, who died in December after ruling in authoritarian style for 21 years.
Berdymukhamedov, inaugurated on pledges to continue Niyazov's policies, has since then taken several steps to dismantle Niyazov's personality cult. On Saturday, Berdymukhamedov also appointed Dzhemal Geoklenova as the new textiles minister, another key position in Turkmenistan which is a major cotton exporter.
Geoklenova was Deputy Prime Minister and Textiles Minister before falling out of favour with Niyazov in 2002, when she was sent to Russia as an adviser to the Turkmen ambassador. She returned to Turkmenistan this year as head of state firm Turkmen Carpets.
Berdymukhamedov has pledged to stick to Niyazov's gas agreements with Moscow and even increase exports of gas to Russia via a new route, but is also holding talks with China about a new gas pipeline. Turkmenistan is the second biggest producer and exporter of gas in the former Soviet Union after Russia. It sends abroad some 50 billion cubic metres of gas a year, enough to meet annual demand in a country such as France.
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