Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Feb.28/ Trend, H. Hasanov /
New opportunities became available to supply crude to Europe with the start of natural gas production on the Turkmen shelf of the Caspian Sea, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhammadov said on Tuesday in an interview with the Turkish media outlets on the eve of his visit to Ankara.
"Possible options for natural gas supply to Europe are being studied. Thus, new opportunities became available with the start of natural gas production on the Turkmen shelf of the Caspian Sea," he said.
Earlier it was reported that Turkmenistan stated its willingness to provide large-scale project Nabucco initiated by the EU with about 40 billion cubic meters of gas annually, 10 billion of which can be provided by Malaysian Petronas operating on the offshore block of Turkmenistan.
The rest of the volume can be provided by 1,000-kilometer long East-West gas pipeline, which is under construction in the country's territory and originates from the Galkynysh field and finishes off the coast of the Caspian Sea.
It is necessary to lay a pipeline stretching about 300 kilometers on the Caspian seabed to the Azerbaijani coast to link Turkmen resources with Nabucco.
The Nabucco project covers the territory of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Austria. Its implementation, as well as the cost is periodically reviewed. Maximum capacity is 31 billion cubic meters of gas.
Potential buyers, Nabucco consortium members are Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Turkish Botas, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz and German RWE.
There is no direct agreement on the implementation of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline yet. However, in September 2011 the European Union issued a mandate to start negotiations on an agreement between the EU, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on the Trans-Caspian project. Negotiations are underway.
Ashgabat believes that consent of the parties (Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan), territory of which is covered by the project, is enough to lay pipeline through the seabed of the Caspian Sea, legal status of which has not been yet determined.
Azerbaijan expressed its willingness to provide its territory, transit opportunities and infrastructure to implement the project. Representatives of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) made this statement recently.