ASHGABAT -- Turkmenistan's president has fired the head of the oil and gas sector that accounts for more than 90% of the country's exports, state media reported Thursday (April 6).
Yashigeldy Kakayev, deputy prime minister in charge of oil and gas, is facing demotion, according to the state-owned Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper.
The newspaper cited President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov as complaining of "shortcomings in supervision" of the sector on the part of Kakayev, who took the job in 2015 after holding several other high profile energy-related positions in the state over the last two decades.
Maksat Babayev, who headed the country's state energy champion, Turkmengaz, will take over one of the key position in a country where Berdymukhamedov is both president and head of the cabinet.
Berdymukhamedov also fired Redjep Bazarov, deputy prime minister for agriculture, in the most significant cabinet changes since he won re-election in February.
Esenmyrat Orazgeldiyev, a former head of one of the country's regions, will now replace Bazarov, who was fired for "unsatisfactory work".
