Hurriyet Daily News: Russia slams Caspian gas pipeline project

A Russian diplomat on Dec. 1 called a planned pipeline linking gas-rich Turkmenistan with Europe via the Caspian Sea a political project of the West that could cause tensions without ensuring Europe’s energy security.

“The TransCaspian pipeline will have practically no influence on Europe’s energy security,” Russian ambassador to Turkmenistan Alexander Blokhin told journalists in a briefing in Ashgabat.

The pipeline’s 10 billion cubic meter capacity is too little in comparison with Europe’s total consumption of gas to have any impact, he said, calling the project “more related to politics than economics.” The submarine TransCaspian pipeline project aims to transport natural gas from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan via the Caspian Sea, to feed into other pipelines, including Trans Anatolia, an assertive Turkish-Azeri project to carry gas to Turkey’s west before being exported to Europe.  MORE