Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov sacked his oil and gas minister, citing his poor performance on state television on Friday, just two days after the Central Asian nation agreed landmark deals to supply natural gas to Pakistan and India.
The deals agreed on Wednesday offer major economic benefits but depend on building and defending a US-backed pipeline across violence-wracked Afghanistan, including a 735-km (450-mile) leg through the provinces of Herat and Kandahar. A former deputy head of Turkmenistan''s state gas company Turkmengaz, Kakageldy Abdullaev, was named acting oil and gas minister to replace Bayramgeldy Nedirov, who had held his post since August 2008.
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