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Russia, CAsia leaders agree landmark gas pipeline deal
By Anton Lomov
AFP
TURKMENBASHI, Turkmenistan
Petroleumworld.com 05 14 07The presidents of Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan agreed a landmark gas pipeline deal on Saturday in a victory for Moscow over European and US plans for the region.
During a three-way summit in the Caspian Sea port of Turkmenbashi, the presidents agreed on pipeline restoration and new construction from Turkmenistan to Russia via Kazakhstan -- a route long favored by Russia.
"We will reconstruct the Caspian shore gas pipeline with a capacity of 10 billion cubic metres (per year) and build a parallel gas pipeline. The corresponding agreement will be signed before this July," Russia's Vladimir Putin said.
Putin said concrete work on the project would begin in the first half of 2008, and would increase capacity along the route by at least 12 billion cubic metres per year by 2012.
The deal represented a major triumph for Moscow, which has long pushed the route over a rival US proposal that would cross the Caspian.
When asked about the trans-Caspian proposal, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov said: "That project has not been cancelled," Interfax reported.
Russian Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko spoke dismissively of the US proposal, however, saying: "No such project exists today."
"The legal, technical, and ecological risks are so great that finding investors, if this is not a political project... will be impossible," he told journalists at the summit, Interfax reported.
Putin's three-way meeting with Berdymukhammedov and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev came amid a week-long tour of Central Asia meant to counter US and European influence in the Caspian region.
Nazarbayev sought to play down any perception of a contest, saying that it was "natural and normal for all integrated states" to expand regional transport ties.
"If they now say there is some kind of bypassing of the East or the West, my understanding is that we and Turkmenistan are taking a perfectly pragmatic approach," he said.
But in a clear sign of growing tensions over energy corridors, the presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Poland held a rival energy summit on Friday and backed a planned oil pipeline bypassing Russia.
The summit in Krakow, which Nazarbayev declined an invitation to attend, brought a joint declaration of support for a pipeline that would link the Caspian and Baltic Seas to provide an oil corridor that doesn't depend on Russia.
Europe has voiced growing concern about the power that Moscow wields because of its massive oil and gas reserves, as well as its strong control over transport of energy supplies from Central Asia.
On Saturday, Putin said Russia's plans for the Turkmen energy sector did not end with pipelines.
"Russia is ready not only to invest in the transport system itself, but to extract gas in Turkmenistan," Putin told journalists. "Turkmenistan welcomes this investment."
Berdymukhammedov said the new pipeline project "will bring obvious benefits for all sides."
"We guarantee the delivery of Turkmen gas at the volume to be set in our agreement," he said.
Alexei Miller, CEO of Russian state gas giant Gazprom, said Saturday's agreement would allow Russia to raise its total imports of Turkmen gas "to 80 billion cubic metres per year, in line with the contract we have until 2028," Interfax reported.
Russia imported 41 billion cubic metres of gas from Turkmenistan in 2006, according to the Kremlin.
The new pipeline will be the first to be built in Turkmenistan since the 1970s, and will reinforce Russia's monopoly on exports of the country's vast gas supplies.
Berdymukhammedov, who came to power after the death of longtime Turkmen dictator Saparmurat Niyazov in December, has signalled a more open foreign policy than his predecessor, raising hopes in the West of increased access to Turkmen gas.
Russia relies heavily on Central Asian gas to make up for sluggish exploration and development of its own fields.
AFP 12 1202 GMT 05 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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