"We plan to intensify contacts with our partners" in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, Sechin said in response to an order by Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to maintain close contacts and coordinate "all our actions with our strategic partners, firstly in Central Asia."

Last week, Turkmenistan blamed Gazprom for a pipeline explosion that appears to have halted Turkmenistan’s massive gas exports to Russia. The Turkmen said a Gazprom subsidiary stopped without permission the flow of gas through the pipeline to Russia, thus causing "an extreme technical emergency."

After the incident, gas supplies were stopped, with the Turkmen party seeking compensation from Gazprom for damages.

Sechin told Putin on Thursday that a Russian delegation would take part in a major conference in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, this month focused on securing stable gas supplies and transit, and that Russia would contact its Turkmen partners as it prepares for the event, Platts reported.

"We hope we will have an opportunity to intensify that work," Sechin said during a meeting with Putin and Gazprom’s CEO Alexei Miller, according to the government statement.

Analysts have said the pipeline incident was a blessing for Gazprom as it is facing a significant drop in gas demand in Europe and has already announced at least a 10% cut in its own gas production due to falling consumption.

Turkmenistan is the largest supplier of Central Asian gas to Russia, normally sending around 50 billion cubic meters/year. Gazprom had agreed to pay a market-based price for the gas starting this year, a price much higher than it paid in 2008.

Last Friday, Russian daily Kommersant said Gazprom had started a "gas war" with Turkmenistan after the Central Asian country announced an international tender for the construction of a new gas pipeline dubbed East-West, which would link the Iolotan field with the Caspian coast.

"This became a surprise for Gazprom as it was [previously] planned that the gas giant would build the pipeline and link it with the planned new gas line along the Caspian Sea," to transport gas to Russia, Kommersant said.

Russia failed to secure the link between the new pipeline with a route toward Russia, thus "losing guarantees [it would] receive Iolotan gas," the daily said.

The planned pipeline from Turkmenistan along the Caspian Sea toward Russia, which Moscow has agreed to build with the Central Asian republics, is seen as a rival route to the planned Nabucco pipeline, which is backed by the EU and aims to bring Turkmen gas to Europe without going through Russia.