Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline

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Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline is a planned submarine extension of the South Caucasus Pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline) by Baku (Azerbaijan)- Türkmenbaşy (Turkmenistan) and/or Tengiz (Kazakhstan) branch.

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[edit] Description of pipeline

The aim of this pipeline is to transport Kazakh and Turkmen natural gas through Turkey to Europe. The annual capacity of pipeline is planned 30 bcm and the estimated cost will be 5 billion USD. The South Caucasus Pipeline constitutes the first leg of the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline, integrating the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline with the Nabucco project (Turkey-Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria) by connecting the two planned lines near Erzurum. However, it's not likely that the project will go beyond the planning stages in the near future.

[edit] History

[edit] End of 1990s

The project of natural gas import from Turkmenistan through the submarine pipeline was suggested in 1996 by the United States. In February 1999, the Turkmen government entered into an agreement with General Electric and Bechtel Group for the feasibility study of pipeline. In 1999, the OSCE meeting in Istanbul issued a declaration of intent to construct a pipeline. However, because of complicated relations between Caspian Sea countries (particularly as a result of Russia’s and Iran’s opposition to the project), the unresolved legal dispute of the Caspian Sea boundaries and the gas discovery on Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field, the submarine pipeline project was shelved since summer of 2000 and only the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum pipeline project was developed.

[edit] 2006

Since January 2006, the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline project has been reactivated, probably also because of Russian gas disputes with some of its neighbours. On 11 January 2006, the Azerbaijan's prime-minister Artur Rasizade offered his Kazakhstan's colleague Danial Ahmetov to export Kazakh gas through the South Caucasus Pipeline in Turkey and further to European market. In March 2006, the Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov has signaled an intention to rejoin negotiations on the pipeline. In May 2006, during his visit to Kazakhstan the EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs stressed the EU support for construction of the Trans-Caspian pipeline. The Kazakh government is looking into building the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline as a pipeline from Aktau to Baku.

Azerbaijan's Industry and Energy Minister Natig Aliyev, while addressing an international energy conference in Baku, outlined the advantages of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline for diversifying supplies and restraining prices.

[edit] Critics

The project is heavily criticized by Russia and Iran, current export countries of Turkmen gas. Alexander Golovin, special envoy on Caspian issues, has stated that a major gas pipeline would pose a serious, dangerous risk to the prosperity of the entire region. Russia has also staked out a position that a potential pipeline project, regardless of the route it takes on the seabed, would require the consent of all five Caspian littoral states in order to proceed. Iran has pointed out that treaties signed by Iran and the Soviet Union in 1921 and 1940 are still in force and that any action taken without the consent of all the littoral states will be considered illegal.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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