Russia's Gazprom files case against Turkmengaz over gas price

Baku.24 July.REPORT.AZ/ Russian gas company Gazprom said on Friday it had lodged a case against Turkmenistan's Turkmengaz at the international arbitration court in Stockholm over the price in a supply contract, Report informs citing Russian media.

The move came two weeks after Turkmenistan accused Gazprom of not paying for gas supplied from the Central Asian country this year.

Gazprom, the world's top natural gas producer, buys gas from Turkmenistan for its own use or resale. But the amount has fallen this year as relations between Moscow and the reclusive former Soviet Union republic are increasingly strained by a competition to supply the large Chinese gas market.

A spokesman for the Russian company said: "A lawsuit has been filed in Stockholm. The demand is a revision of prices."

The spokesman declined to elaborate.

Earlier on Friday, Forbes magazine reported that the purchasing price stood at $240 per 1,000 cubic metres - lower than the price Gazprom charges its customers in Europe.

Turkmenistan so far has the upper hand in the fight for the Chinese market, supplying around 30 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas annually with plans to double that volume by 2020.