Turkmenistan to start charging for natural gas

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan – Turkmenistan’s president said Saturday his government will begin installing gas meters in households, ending the unlimited supply of free gas in the energy-rich Central Asian nation.

President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov said during a televised address the government hoped the meters would encourage people to consume energy more efficiently, but neither he nor the country’s state-owned gas company gave a time frame or a reason behind the policy change. The government also didn’t immediately reveal how much it will charge for gas.

The move comes in the wake of signs that the authoritarian government sees the subsidized domestic energy market as too heavy an economic burden, and is making energy exports a bigger priority.

The nation is estimated to have the world’s fourth-largest natural gas reserves, and gas, electricity and water have been supplied free to households since 1993. In 2006, the same year Berdymukhamedov became president, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament voted to extend the free energy policy until 2030.

The free gas has been the carrot to the stick of Berdymukhamedov’s regime, which has allowed no dissent or independent media in the predominantly Muslim nation of 5 million people. Berdymukhamedov, nicknamed Arkadag (the Protector), won by a landslide 97 percent in 2012 presidential elections, in a vote widely criticized by election monitoring groups.