Turkmenistan Promises Natural Gas

According to First Vice Premier Oleh Dubyna, the Turkmenistan government has favored an arrangement foreseeing supplies of 34 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Ukraine. The volume of supplies tallies with Ukraine’s previously endorsed gas balance. According to him, a Turkmenistan government decree on gas payments in 2002 has been signed. The first vice premier characterized the conditions stipulated in it as good. He also announced that under the arrangement Ukraine will build tankers and dry cargo ships for Turkmenistan and refit vessel repair docks. Ukrainian specialists will build one cement plant in Turkmenistan and overhaul another, reports Interfax-Ukraine. According to the vice premier, under the arrangements worked out as part of the gas agreements Turkmenistan will receive forty Ukrainian-made crawler tractors by mid-February and another eighty during the remainder of the year.