Azerbaijan, Baku, March 1 / Trend V. Zhavoronkova/
The next discussion on the Caspian gas supplies to Europe will be held in early March, the Energy Department of the European Commission said.
" The next meeting on technical level will take place in early March," Nicole Bockstaller, the press-officer of EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, told Trend via e-mail
She added, that the negotiations with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan are "progressing well".
"The commission hopes to have an agreement [on Caspian gas supplies to Europe] as soon as possible," Bockstaller said.
Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and the EU are preparing two documents that will allow them to take delivery of the Caspian and in particular Turkmen gas to Europe, Azerbaijani Industry and Energy Minister Natiq Aliyev said at a meeting with members of the Caspian-European Integration Business Club (CEIBC) on Wednesday.
He said that Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and the European Union are preparing a political document to support the Southern Gas Corridor, as well as an inter-governmental agreement on Trans-Caspian gas pipeline.
In September, 2011 the EU Council gave a mandate for the negotiations between the EU, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to build the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline.
Trans-Caspian gas pipeline running to around 300 kilometres will be laid from the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijani, where it will be linked to the Southern Gas Corridor. The negotiations between Turkmenistan and the EU and other countries on the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline have been on-going since the late 1990s.
The Southern Gas Corridor' is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It is designed to diversify the routes and sources of supply and thereby increase the energy security of the EU. The Southern Gas Corridor project includes Nabucco, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and ITGI.