The presidents of Turkmenistan and Romania Wednesday signed a joint declaration aimed at increasing energy cooperation between the two former communist states.
"We have signed a joint declaration, one of whose points is the broadening of cooperation in the energy sphere," Romanian President Traian Basescu told reporters in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat.
The document, signed by Basescu and Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, comes as Turkmenistan is looking to diversify its natural gas export routes amid a row with Russia.
Moscow has a virtual monopoly on the export of Turkmen gas through its state-run energy company OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS), but there have been signs of strain recently between the two countries.
Wednesday's announcement comes two weeks after Berdymukhamedov said his country was prepared to pump gas into the planned Nabucco project, aimed at breaking Russia's monopoly on Caspian energy exports.
The 3,300-kilometer pipeline is expected to pump 31 billion cubic meters of gas from the Caspian Sea to Austria via Turkey and the Balkans, bypassing Russia.
Romania is eager to secure alternative supplies of natural gas after it was left without heating in the depths of winter earlier this year when an energy dispute between Russia and Ukraine led Moscow to halt gas exports into Europe.