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Kazakh leader proposes new canal for energy exports
AFP
SAINT PETERSBURG
Petroleumworld.com 06 11 07Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed on Sunday building a canal from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea that would become a "powerful" route for Central Asian energy exports.
"The Central Asian and Caspian regions are rich in energy resources... but these reserves have to be delivered to world markets," he said.
He said the new canal "would be a powerful corridor providing an outlet for the whole of Central Asia to the sea via Russia."The Kazakh leader outlined the plan for overcoming the limitations of Central Asia's landlocked status at an economic forum in Russia's second city Saint Petersburg.
In the audience were Russian President Vladimir Putin and heads of other ex-Soviet states including Islam Karimov, president of Kazakhstan's neighbour Uzbekistan.
Major world powers including China, Russia and the United States have all championed rival oil and gas pipeline projects as they compete for influence over Central Asia's vast unexploited energy resources.
On Sunday Nazarbayev denied that politics was a major factor when choosing transit routes, saying that economics came first.
" The main consideration for Central Asia in choosing transit corridors is economic. There's no politics involved, despite what is often said," Nazarbayev said.
The Kazakh leader said that his new canal proposal would be 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) shorter than an existing route that loops north from the Black Sea through the Volga-Don Canal to the Caspian.
The Volga-Don Canal was built by tens of thousands of forced prison labourers under repressive Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin.
AFP 10 1132 GMT 06 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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