Turkmenistan Guarantees 10 Bcm to Europe Through Trans-Caspian

Turkmenistan is set to supply 10 billion cubic metres of gas through the Trans-Caspian pipeline, Azeri Energy Minister Natig Aliyev has said.

Speaking in Baku yesterday, Minister Aliyev said that negotiations were now ongoing to work out the particulars of such a deal but that the present focus was on the financial aspects of such a deal.

"The main questions now are financial, in particular the guarantees. We would like to hear from European Commission on guarantees of purchase, supplies, support of funding of such a great project" he told reporters. 

Work was beginning on the construction of a document to solidify the agreement, he said, and would involve the governments of both countries and the EU.

"The main document we would like to prepare besides political declaration of three Presidents (of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and the EU) is the intergovernmental agreement between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on construction of Trans-Caspian gas pipeline," ABC.az reports him as saying.

"Of course when such agreements are prepared, guarantee and the sides’ liabilities are the main principles. In this case, I can say as representative of Azerbaijan that we are ready to present infrastructure, necessary licenses and permissions which we permanently declared. We are also ready to form a favorable regime for transportation of Turkmen gas via Azerbaijan’s territory."

Turkmenistan is currently seeking to diversify its supply routes, with Europe forming an important part of those plans. Last month, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said that such diversification would help to grow Turkmenistan's energy industry.

"This will accelerate the integration of the oil and gas industry of Turkmenistan into the international energy system and effectively address the issues in the field of universal energy security," he said.