BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 2. Reducing methane
emissions in Turkmenistan is gradually becoming part of the
practical work carried out across the country’s oil and gas
infrastructure. The latest results of the country’s cooperation
with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) show how this work is
moving from identifying individual emission sources to actually
eliminating them and keeping them under subsequent monitoring.
As UNEP told Trend in an exclusive
interview,
Turkmenistan has already eliminated emissions at eight sources
located on pipelines, wells and flares. According to the
organization’s estimates, before the work was carried out, these
sources had emitted a combined total of more than 27,000 tons of
methane – an environmental impact comparable to that of more than
500,000 passenger cars driven for a year.
The causes varied: leaks stemmed from corrosion in sections of
gas flowlines, unlit flares at gas wells, and issues related to
well integrity and equipment. After the emissions were eliminated,
UNEP carried out follow-up verification using high-resolution
satellite data, which found no recurrence of the previously
recorded emissions.
It is precisely this sequence – detection, mitigation,
verification of results and continued monitoring – that turns
methane management into a measurable process. A source is
considered mitigated only once subsequent satellite observations
confirm that the previously detected emissions are no longer
occurring.
For the gas industry, this approach carries clear practical
weight. As production and infrastructure expand, controlling leaks
becomes a matter of how precisely the industry is able to manage
its own production processes and confirm the results it
achieves.
Turkmenistan’s efforts to curb methane emissions are unfolding
against another important backdrop: the country is simultaneously
expanding its engagements tied to future growth in natural gas
production and exports. Against this background, emissions control
is gradually taking on added significance for the infrastructure
meant to support additional supply volumes.
One of the most concrete tracks in this respect remains the
Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline
project. In September, Turkmenistan’s Ambassador to Pakistan,
Atajan Movlamov, said Ashgabat expects to create the conditions for
gas supplies to Pakistan via the pipeline to begin in 2027.
According to him, construction of the Turkmen-Afghan section
between Serhetabat and Herat is scheduled for completion by the end
of 2026.
TAPI, however, is not being considered in isolation from the
expansion of the resource base. In late September, it was announced
in Turkmenistan that the fourth phase of development at the
Galkynysh field envisages building capacity to process an
additional 10 billion cubic meters of marketable gas per year.
Official materials directly link the project to the expansion of
the country’s export potential.
Another existing export channel is also being prepared for
increased volumes. In March, the chairman of Turkmenistan’s Halk
Maslahaty (Parliament), Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, said that as of
March 1, 2026, approximately 460 billion cubic meters of gas had
been supplied to China via the Turkmenistan-China pipeline. “We are
currently working together to increase gas export volumes to 65
billion cubic meters per year,” he said.
Finally, Ashgabat continues to reaffirm its interest in the
western direction as well. In April, Turkmenistan’s Foreign
Minister Rashid Meredov said that natural gas supplies to Europe
are among the key priorities of the country’s energy policy. He
recalled that work had previously been carried out on delivering
Turkmen gas to Europe across the Caspian Sea.
Practical interest in this direction has also surfaced in
contacts with Azerbaijan. Earlier, the editor-in-chief of the
newspaper Türkmen Dünýäsi, Batyr Muradov, told Trend in an
interview that
Turkmenistan is considering the possibility of exporting gas to
Europe via Azerbaijan.
At the same time, the work on methane emissions fits within the
broader principles that Turkmenistan has been articulating in
recent years with regard to the development of its economy and
energy sector – namely, the rational use of resources, the adoption
of modern technologies and a gradual transition toward a “green”
economy.
The technical dimension here is of fundamental importance. The
eight sources identified by UNEP were tied to specific elements of
gas infrastructure – pipelines, wells and flares. Eliminating them
means not merely cutting emissions into the atmosphere, but
achieving more precise management of gas at production
facilities.
This approach aligns well with the circular-economy course that
Turkmenistan has declared. In 2024, President Serdar Berdimuhamedov
proposed developing a Global Framework Program for the transition
to a circular economy. In July 2026, the Turkmen side once again
identified the shift toward a closed-loop economy as one of the
directions of sustainable development, linking it to the rational
use and renewal of resources, the adoption of “green” technologies
and the reduction of emissions.
In this sense, reducing methane emissions can be seen as one of
the applied elements of this same logic. The less gas that is lost
during production, treatment and transportation, the greater the
share of the resource produced that remains available for further
use or export. For a major gas industry, this is simultaneously a
matter of environmental control and of using raw materials
efficiently.
It is notable that this environmental agenda is developing in
parallel with the expansion of gas infrastructure. In his address
to participants of Turkmenistan’s Investment Forum on October 1,
Serdar Berdimuhamedov noted that construction of the Turkmen-Afghan
section of the TAPI pipeline is continuing. The president described
the Serhetabat-Herat section as “a key link in one of the largest
and most significant projects for the region.”
In the same address, the head of state also linked investment
policy to the adoption of modern technologies and the principles of
a “green” economy. This approach shows that, in the official
agenda, the development of export-oriented gas infrastructure and
environmental objectives are treated as running in parallel, rather
than as mutually exclusive directions.
Overall, reducing methane emissions in Turkmenistan is becoming
one of the elements of President Serdar Berdimuhamedov’s course
toward improving the efficiency of the country’s gas resource use –
and, according to UNEP, this work is already delivering concrete
results.
