Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.25 / Trend A.Badalova /
The Trans-Caspian pipeline project is important for the further development of the Southern Gas Corridor, EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger said in an interview with Trend.
"Aside from the export of Azerbaijani gas to EU, the development of the Trans-Caspian Pipeline is important to further develop the Southern Gas Corridor that has a significant impact on the EU gas supply diversification," Oettinger said.
The Commissioner stressed that the corridor should ultimately bring more than 40 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas to the Union every year and the export of gas resources in Turkmenistan through the Trans-Caspian Pipeline can contribute to this objective.
With regard to the negotiations on the Trans-Caspian Pipeline, Oettinger said that the first rounds of talks of the EU with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on this project, which took place in 2011 and 2012, helped to understand the positions and the ambitions of the different parties around the negotiation table.
"During the most recent rounds of negotiations, serious progresses have been made on the design of the framework agreement for the development of this project," Oettinger said.
The next meeting, according to Oettinger, should help the parties around the table to find a common view on the remaining points of the framework agreement concerning the deliveries of gas volumes from Turkmenistan and the associated transit in Azerbaijan.
"We share with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan the ambition of reaching rapidly an agreement on the respective rights and responsibilities, but it would be too speculative to give a final date for the negotiations at this stage," Oettinger said.
The Trans-Caspian gas pipeline is planned to be laid from the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea to the Azerbaijani coast. The pipeline's length will hit about 300 kilometers.
Negotiations on the construction of the pipeline between Turkmenistan, the EU and other countries have been held since the late 1990s.
The negotiation process has been intensified after the European Union delivered a mandate to start negotiations on the preparation of an agreement between the EU, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on the Trans-Caspian project in September 2011. However, Iran and Russia later expressed their negative attitude towards the project. Tehran and Moscow think the pipeline construction may damage the Caspian Sea's ecology.
In February Azerbaijani Minister of Industry and Energy Natig Aliyev said that two documents which must be signed at the level of the Azerbaijani, Turkmen presidents, head of the European Commission and the governments of the two Caspian-littoral countries, are being prepared within the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project.
He said that three sides will support the corridor within the first document. The second document must be signed between the Azerbaijani and Turkmen governments.
