Turkmenistan, an energy-rich post-Soviet nation in Central Asia, hopes to resume gas supplies to Russia by the end of the month, a government official said Friday.
"Turkmengaz plans to resume supplies of gas to Russia at the end of October of this year," a Turkmen government official told AFP.
"Maintenance works" at the pipeline following an April blast that virtually halted Turkmen gas exports to Russia have been completed, the official said, requesting anonymity.
"Now we are planning to hold talks with our Russian colleagues from Gazprom" by end of the month, the official added.
"We've already managed to solve a number of technical issues related to gas supplies with the Russian side and this joint work speaks to our understanding of the prospects of the Turkmen-Russian cooperation in energy sphere."
A Gazprom spokesman said the company would not comment.
VTB Capital earlier this month said gas supplies from Turkmenistan to Russia would start either in October or November but was later forced to retract the statement following apparent pressure from Gazprom.
President Dmitry Medvedev's spokeswoman said on October 7 Turkmenistan and Russia had agreed a resumption of gas exports from the Central Asian after the Kremlin chief's visit to Turkmenistan last month.
Turkmenistan has accused Russia of abruptly decreasing the volumes of Turkmen natural gas, causing the pipeline to rupture, allowing Russia to drastically scale down its imports of Turkmen gas at a time when demand for gas in Europe fell.