Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.9
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
The Trans Caspian Pipeline project, which envisages transportation of Turkmenistan’s gas to Europe, is very easily done technically, Ariel Cohen, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and founder of the International Market Analysis LLC, told Trend.
“The project that would connect the Turkmen gas fields with the principle gas export pipeline known as Trans Caspian Pipeline was under review and discussions for many years, probably for two decades. It is very easily done technically. It requires an interconnector of only 120 kilometers between the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea and the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian,” he said.
The problem is much more political, the expert believes.
“The leaders in Ashgabat were concerned about the reactions of Iran and Russia. And being neighbors to such big strong countries of course is a challenge. But at the same time, for example, if Turkmenistan creates such a project and provides equity, limited equity to Russia and Iran to give them an incentive to participate, chances are good if they may agree. And with the demarcation of the Caspian Sea into the national sectors, I don’t see why the countries should not be able to do whatever they want to do to develop their national resources. We’ve seen a lot of development especially by Azerbaijan, but also by Kazakhstan and to lesser degree by Iran and Russia,” said Cohen.
So, as the expert said, it is a viable project.
“The Europeans should play a bigger role and be more emphatic and more assertive about that. As I said the factors that hold the project back are the geopolitical factors and here the connection between Turkmenistan and China plays a role. China is not interested in Turkmenistan’s exporting gas anywhere but to China. The Russian route is closed, the Iranian route is closed, because Iranians don’t want to pay for the purchases of gas from Turkmenistan. So, in order to develop the project Turkmenistan needs to work with Azerbaijan and with international oil and gas companies that may be involved. It needs to have a diplomatic strategy that would at least assure neutrality, if not support from Iran and Russia and from China,” said Cohen.
He pointed out that it is necessary to resolve the outstanding issues and build the project with the funding from International organizations financial organizations, maybe the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development or Asian Development Bank.
“So it is a feasible project. It's a project that should have happened already many years ago, but it should happen probably in the next decade,” Cohen concluded.
Trans-Caspian Pipeline envisages transportation of Turkmen gas to Europe through Azerbaijan.
Turkmenistan is studying the possibility of bringing its energy products to the European market. To this end, a 300-kilometer gas pipeline will have to be laid along the Caspian seabed to the shores of Azerbaijan.
Turkmenistan has declared its readiness to supply Europe with an annual volume of up to 40 billion cubic meters of gas.
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