TURKMENISTAN: MURADOV OUT AS STATE AGENCY

C O N F I D E N T I A L ASHGABAT 001131 SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN, EEB PLEASE PASS TO USTDA DAN STEIN ENERGY FOR EKIMOFF/THOMPSON COMMERCE FOR HUEPER E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/27/2018 TAGS: PGOV EPET TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: MURADOV OUT AS STATE AGENCY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REF: ASHGABAT 1103 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Sylvia R. Curran for reasons 1.4(B) an d (D). ¶1. (C) Chevron's Country Manager called us late on August 27 to report that, when he attempted to send documents to the Executive Director of the State Agency for Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources, his intern was told that Bayrammurat Muradov is no longer Executive Director. Instead, the Chairman of the TurkmenGaz State Concern, Yagshygeldi Kakayev, has been appointed the new State Agency Executive Director. (COMMENT: During a subsequent embassy phone call to the State Agency, we were told that the appointment of the unnamed new director still had not been officially made. END COMMENT.) The Minister of Oil and Gas, Baymurat Hojamuhammedov, was moved to replace Kakayev at TurkmenGaz, and the deputy Minister of Oil and Gas has been moved up to replace Hojamuhammedov. There is no news about what is happening to Muradov, nor has there been any indication whether anything has happened to the Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers for Oil and Gas, Tachberdi Tagiyev. ¶2. (C) Wintershall country manager Kal Sandhu confirmed to emboff on August 27 that Muradov is out. Muradov called him earlier on August 27 to say that he was leaving and that Kakayev would replace him. According to Sandhu, Muradov was in a very good mood, stating that either he would be "appointed or ordered" to his next position. Muradov said he had wanted to stay until the new Petroleum Law was published, but then to move on. Muradov also reportedly stressed to Sandhu that Kakayev is very smart and very highly regarded, even by his own people. Kakayev, Muradov pointed out, was the key negotiator for the production sharing agreement with the China National Petroleum Corporation and is Turkmenistan's main negotiator with Gazprom. ¶3. (C) COMMENT: We are still trying to find out exactly what this means. There have been rumors since the State Agency's establishment that Muradov and Tagiyev never really got on: Muradov, though a strategic thinker, lacks a technical knowledge of the hydrocarbon sector, while Tagiyev, a technocrat, lacks a strategic perspective. On the surface, this looks as if Turkmenistan's technocrats -- headed by Tagiyev -- may have scored a victory. With the new Petroleum Law giving the State Agency substantially beefed-up responsibilities (reftel),however, Muradov -- and President Berdimuhamedov, to whom he is reported to be quite close -- may have recognized that the State Agency needs somebody with more technical expertise in place, and most oil company representatives agree that there is nobody in the government with more gas expertise than Kakayev. END COMMENT. CURRAN