Turkmenistan Demonstrates Commitment To Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline

by Vladimir Socor, Eurasia Daily Monitor, Vol. 8, Iss. 46, Mar 8, 2011 —

Turkmenistan is developing the environmental and legal cases for construction of a trans-Caspian gas pipeline to Azerbaijan, there to link up with the EU-backed Southern Gas Corridor to Europe. While Russia and Iran oppose trans-Caspian pipelines, ostensibly on ecological and legal grounds, Ashgabat has started making the affirmative case. Concurrently, Turkmenistan is has launched construction of the East-West pipeline across its own territory, to connect its onshore gas fields with the Caspian coast. Ashgabat has also opened talks with international companies for service contracts to develop Turkmenistan’s onshore gas fields (production-sharing contracts being limited to the offshore).

On March 1 in Ashgabat, the Turkmen government hosted an international conference on “Environmental Aspects of Trans-Caspian Pipelines.” The government initiated the conference to advance a detailed ecological case in favor of laying a gas pipeline on the seabed to Azerbaijan. Representatives of Turkmenistan and international energy companies argued that seabed pipelines are safer, as well as more environment-friendly, compared with any mode of gas transportation, whether onshore or offshore. In Azerbaijan’s offshore sector alone, oil and gas pipelines with a total length of some 3,000 kilometers have been added by international companies during the last 15 years and are operating safely. Participants also cited Russia’s own construction of cross-border gas pipelines on the seabed of the Baltic and Black Sea. The case for trans-Caspian pipelines in international law was also highlighted at the Ashgabat conference.

The event was unprecedented for Turkmenistan, and state media coverage of the event emphasized Turkmen and European interests in linking up through gas pipelines. Azerbaijan’s Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, Huseingulu Bagirov, noted “both countries’ tremendous potential and desire to become part of the Southern Corridor” (www.turkmenistan.ru, TDH [Turkmen State News Agency], Neytralni Turkmenistan, Trend Capital, March 1, 2; News Central Asia, March 6). . . .

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