As the year draws to an end, so Leanan has quickly caught the news that is only now being picked up elsewhere that the ruler of Turkmenistan, Turkmenbashi has died of an apparent heart attack with the immediate heir being announced as

Deputy Prime Minister Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov as interim president -- in apparent violation of the country's constitution, which stipulates that the parliament speaker should take over until elections are held.

His nominal successor was the speaker Alezov, but, in the immediate consequence of the death, he has apparently been put under arrest (something that was prominent about 4 hours ago but which seems to have vanished from the Internet).

The reason for this little post is that Turkmenistan holds the fourth largest gas reserves around, and the future of these may now be in some doubt. We have written about some of the interplay between Turkmenistan, Russia and potential customers over the past year and it might be appropriate to repeat some of that information to remind you of the situation.

UPDATE: Thanks to Greko there is a Stratfor piece that gives more information on the current situation here .