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Paper short abstract:

The paper aims to explore the impact of Gazprom in Central Asian energy politics by focusing on its relations with governmental and corporate actors.To this end, the paper attempts to define sources and limits of Gazprom’s political role and power at national and transnational levels.

Paper long abstract:

The presence of Russian gas giant Gazprom has more than half-a-century history in Central Asia. Inherited infrastructure from the Soviet Union and the long-term agreements, signed with regional states in the beginning of 2000s, let Gazprom to dominate the regional gas market until 2008 global financial crisis. Following this crisis, Gazprom significantly lowered volumes of gas imported from Central Asia because gas demand in Europe dramatically decreased and re-exported Central Asian gas by the company turned out to be superfluous. Gazprom’s subsidiaries in the region have still been effective in gas trade and production that is why decreasing gas purchase volumes did not mean company’s total quit from the region, but this paved the way for China to emerge as an influential importer of regional gas – particularly of Turkmen gas. In 2018, Gazprom reported record gas export to Europe, 200 bcm of gas. In summer 2019, Gazprom announced that company interested in increasing the amount of gas purchases from Central Asia to 20 bcm per year in 2019-2021. For sure, this amount is apparently less than it was before 2009 gas dispute with Turkmenistan, but this statement is meaningful as it indicates Gazprom’s revival to Central Asia as an importer. Along with relatively advantageous current economic conditions, increasing attention of USA toward the region and recently declared “United States Strategy for Central Asia 2019-2025” might encourage Russia to revise its policies toward the region and in this political context Russian companies’ interactions in the region might be strengthened.

The paper aims to explore the impact of Gazprom in Central Asian energy politics. The paper focuses on Gazprom’s relations with regional states and energy companies. The paper is structured in three sections: The first section overviews regional energy sector and the presence of foreign companies in Central Asia. The second section of the paper tries to define the sources of Gazprom’s political role and power at national and transnational levels in a relational perspective. The third section of the paper attempts to determine the extent of political power of Gazprom in the context of rivalry with other actors.