Competition for Nabucco and South Stream?
A new twist has evidently inserted itself into the Nabucco-South Stream pipeline rivalry.
Koen Minne, Belgian businessman, says his engineering company Enex, is poised to clinch a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) deal with Turkmenistan in November.
Speaking in an interview with EUobserver, Mr. Minne said that Enex and a consortium of unnamed EU energy companies is getting ready to pitch its final offer to Ashgabat next month: "I believe that we will have an agreement in November. If everything goes according to schedule, I think we will be ready to have a proposal to take to the Turkmen side."
Minne, chief executive officer at Belgium engineering company, said he plans to present a deal to Ashgabat to ship compressed natural gas across the Caspian Sea and then through the existing Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline to Turkey.
He said that if his deal goes through, it isn't likely Turkmenistan would designate its gas for Russia's South Stream project or Europe's Nabucco project, representing a potential setback for the rival pipeline projects.
“It is of course not the intention from the Turkmen side to have Turkmen gas competing with other Turkmen gas ... I don't believe Turkmenistan would sign a policy to feed South Stream or Nabucco," Mr. Minne said.
Minne holds the post of Honorary Consul of Turkmenistan to Belgium and the EU. He reportedly speaks regularly to Turkmenistan's deputy Prime Minister Yagshigeldy Kakayev and foreign minister Rashid Meredov. This year alone he claims to have had seven face-to-face meetings with President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and that company has in recent years brokered €430 million of foreign energy investments in the country.
The CNG project envisages taking between 3 and 4 billion cubic metres (bcm) a year of Turkmen gas by ship across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan and pumping it through the existing Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline to Turkey. Minne plans to make the first shipments in 2013 or 2014.
Minne denies the musings of some EU diplomats who believe that he is acting on behalf of Russian interests and mischief making in attempting to disrupt the Nabucco pipeline.
The article states that it is still unclear who will build the pipeline link from Erzurum to the EU market and whether Turkmenistan will participate in the Enex-led transit consortium or simply sell gas at its border.