Topic: Saparmurat Niyazov

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- The recent Russian-Georgian confrontation continues to impact regional energy markets. To lessen its reliance on Russia, which provides nearly two-thirds of its natural gas imports, Turkey is seeking to bolster its ties with Turkmenistan, which possesses the world's fifth-largest natural gas reserves.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- While the West remains fixated on determining the true culprit behind the recent Georgian-Russian conflict over South Ossetia, its real cost will likely be the future direction of Caspian energy exports. In the wake of the conflict, Turkmenistan has decided to increase its future natural gas exports to China rather than consider the possibility of an undersea Caspian pipeline to transport its hydrocarbon riches westward.

WASHINGTON, July 17 (UPI) -- Afghanistan and Turkmenistan have agreed to deepen their cooperation on a number of energy projects as Ashgabat abandons its previous isolationist policies. Turkmenistan is moving ever further away from the neutrality policy articulated by the late “president for life,” Saparmurat Niyazov, self-styled “Turkmenbashi” (“father of the Turkmen”), and has agreed to assist Kabul in developing its oil and gas deposits.

WASHINGTON, May 22 (UPI) -- For the last 17 months Russia and China have been engaged in a three-way tussle with Western energy companies to develop Turkmenistan's vast natural gas resources.

WASHINGTON, May 6 (UPI) -- TAP's promises of riches trump geography and politics as it would pass through some of the world's most forbidding places en route to India.

WASHINGTON, April 28 (UPI) -- Of all the post-Soviet Caspian nations, Western investors since 1991 looked most longingly at Turkmenistan, which was essentially unavailable during the reign of Saparmurat Niyazov.

WASHINGTON, April 4 (UPI) -- Record-high energy prices have provoked a global scramble among nations dependent on energy imports to lock in their requirements, in Asia none more so than China and Japan, the world's second- and third-largest oil importers, with daily imports of an estimated 7 million and 5.4 million barrels per day respectively.

WASHINGTON, March 28 (UPI) -- Since the death in December 2005 of Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov, Western energy firms have longingly eyed Turkmenistan's vast natural gas reserves, which even during the Soviet era were estimated at 10 trillion to 14 trillion cubic meters, exceeded only by those of the Russian Federation. Among the potential suitors for Ashgabat's favor, no firms were more ardent than U.S. companies. Alas, once again for Washington, the groom has been left at the altar.

Since the death of Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov in December 2006, foreign companies have been falling over themselves to acquire a piece of the country's vast natural gas reserves, estimated during the Soviet era to be between 10 trillion and 14 trillion cubic meters.

The most fascinating energy development of the last 14 months has been the furious, if covert, struggle involving Russia, China and the United States to develop Turkmenistan's vast natural gas deposits since the death of Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov in December 2006.