EU maintains hope for trans-Caspian gas pipeline

A long-stalled project todeliver Turkmen gas to Europe is again in the spotlight after a European Unionofficial said the idea remains on the table.

Denis Daniilidis, the headof the EU mission in Ashgabat, told an oil and gas conference in the Turkmencapital on November 19 that negotiators are finalizing a deal to construct apipeline from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan across the Caspian Sea, bypassingRussia, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported.

According to the diplomat,negotiators are working on "some outstanding issues,” RIA said. The EU,Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan will sign an agreement on related environmentalissues this year, he added.

The trans-Caspian pipelineproject is part of the EU-sponsored Southern Corridor that would delivernatural gas from Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Middle East to Europe whileeasing Europe’s dependence on Russian gas. Russia and Iran oppose theconstruction of any pipeline across the Caspian Sea, citing the unresolvedstatus of the sea and maritime borders. But both have done little in 22 yearssince the breakup of the Soviet Union to remedy the issue, and both have beenaccused of creating obstacles to alternative energy corridors. 

The Southern Corridor,first mooted in 2007, would include the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), fromAzerbaijan's Caspian Sea coast to the Turkish-Bulgarian border; Nabucco West,from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria; and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline(TAP), from the Greek-Turkish border to Italy across the Adriatic. All three projectsare still at the idea stage, though workers were supposed to begin constructionon TANAP this year. In June a consortium of Azeri gas producers turned downNabucco West in favor of TAP.

Supply is unlikely anissue. Turkmenistan is China's largest foreign purveyor of natural gas, whichit supplies via a pipeline that crosses Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The CentralAsian state inaugurated the world's second-largest gas field earlier this year.

Turkmenistan is also beingconsidered as a source of natural gas for aTurkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline (TAPI), which was firstproposed in the mid-1990s. At the same conference in Ashgabat on November 19,gas companies from the four countries inched, yet again, toward a deal,Turkmenistan's state-run TDH news agency reported.(Eurasianet)

ANN.Az