Russia Could Stifle Caspian Gas Growth

In a draft copy of its flagship World Energy Outlook report, the International Energy Agency says Caspian region could see “a sizeable increase in production and exports.”

However, the IEA also highlighted “major barriers to the development,” including challenges such as “the sheer scale of the investments needed”, the complexities of building pipelines crossing through several countries before reaching export markets, and technical and regulatory difficulties with some projects.

Turkmenistan will make the big contribution to Caspian gas output growth, becoming from 2015, one of the ten  largest gas producers in the world.

The IEA warns that Russia could stifle the development of the Caspian’s natural gas exports as Moscow has few incentives “to facilitate Caspian countries’ direct access to international markets”, where they could compete with Moscow ­supplies.

“Russia control over central Asia gas flows deprives Eurasia of an important element of market diversity,” says the draft.

Source: Financial Times