Turkmenistan To Raise Gas Prices This Year

12 February 2006 -- Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov said Turkmenistan could raise the price it charges for natural gas by 50 percent later this year.

Niyazov told Turkmen television that the country could raise the price of its gas exports to $100 per 1,000 cubic meters by September or October.

Niyazov was quoted as saying that previously the country sold gas at $44 a cubic meter and more recently at $65, and that the price will "probably" have to go higher still.

Turkmenistan is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the former Soviet Union, after Russia.

(Interfax)