BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 14. Trans-Caspian project is not a project of Azerbaijan, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said at a meeting with heads of leading German companies in Berlin, Trend reports.
"In Trans-Caspian project, we are considered to be a transitor. And we already many times, including myself publicly said that we are ready to provide necessary transit for our friends and partners across the Caspian, if they decide to build the pipeline. But according to my knowledge, why it is not yet been resolved, because the source of financing is not determined yet. Who will be carrying the burden of building the pipeline of the capacity of 30 bcm is unclear, whether it will be some European companies or it will be money coming from EU. For that it should be included into the joint interest project, project of joint common interest. As far as I know, it is not the case, and whether it will be government of Turkmenistan or not, we also do not know. Therefore, this is question number one. Who will pay for that? Second question is okay. It is found who will pay. Then it comes to Azerbaijan, where it will go then? Because in TANAP, we don't have spare capacity now. We will expand TANAP from 16 bcm to 32 bcm by building new compressor stations and it will be fully booked with Azerbaijani gas. So, that means that after the Trans-Caspian, its potential pipeline comes to Azerbaijan. Someone should build another pipeline from Azerbaijan, what will be that company? It's a good question. I'm not skeptical, I'm realistic. And again, it's not our project. If anybody decides to build it, we will be more than happy, because we will earn money from transit and we will provide good services to our neighbors in the East and in the West," President Ilham Aliyev said.