Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 2 / Trend A.Badalova /
Trans Caspian Pipeline, which is proposed to be laid from the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijani, should be a reality, leading expert of the Heritage Foundation for Russian and Eurasian Studies and International Energy Policy and member of Trend Expert Council, Ariel Cohen told in interview to Trend.
"But in order to have that reality you have to have a commitment by Turkmenistan to connect its gas system to Azerbaijan and then take it through TANAP (Trans Anatolian Pipeline) to Turkey and Europe," Cohen said.
Cohen believes that for whatever reason Turkmenistan felt more comfortable dealing with China, which is now willing to get pretty much all of the supply of Turkmen gas. Moreover, according to Cohen, Russia is very interested in Turkmen gas.
However an expert believes that an additional direction for Turkmen gas via Azerbaijan to Europe would be a terrific idea.
Among the possible competitors to Trans Caspian Pipeline Cohen mentioned TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) project, however expert believes that the security issues in Pakistan and Afghanistan are serious problems for realization of this project.
According to Cohen, Trans Caspian Pipeline could be technologically feasible to connect Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, however unresolved status of the Caspian Sea is an obstacle on the way of its implementation.
Negotiations between Turkmenistan and the EU and other countries on the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline have been on-going since the late 90s.
In September, 2011 the EU Council gave a mandate for negotiations between the EU, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to build the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline.
However, later, Iran and Russia expressed negative attitude toward this project. Tehran and Moscow think that the pipeline construction will damage the Caspian Sea environment.