Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 29 / Trend A.Badalova /
The environment-related arguments of Iran and Russia against the construction of the Trans Caspian Pipeline are unfounded, Julian Lee, energy analyst at the Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES), believes.
"The environmental grounds for opposition make little sense, as the pollution impact of a gas pipeline leak would be minimal compared with an oil pipeline and there are already plenty of pipelines beneath the Caspian Sea," Lee wrote Trend in an e-mail. It makes little difference whether they cross national borders."
According to Lee, though gas production on the Turkmen shelf improves the potential for gas exports to Europe, the question about construction of Trans Caspian pipeline makes this potential far from certain.
Lee believes that the real grounds for opposition against the construction of the Trans Caspian Pipeline are commercial and geopolitical.
"Russia wants to protect its key European market from competition as far as it can," Lee said.
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. 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 90s. In September, 2011 the EU Council gave a mandate for negotiations between the EU, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to build the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline.
According to Azerbaijani Industry and Energy Minister Natig Aliyev, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and the EU are currently preparing a political document to support the Southern Gas Corridor, as well as an inter-governmental agreement on the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline. This should take place by late 2012.
This week Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammadov said in interview to the Turkish media outlets, that new opportunities became available to supply crude to Europe with the start of natural gas production on the Turkmen shelf of the Caspian Sea, adding that the possible options for gas supply to the European markets are being studied.
Later the president stressed that Turkmenistan has created "all the necessary conditions to guarantee the filling of any of possible export routes of Turkmen gas."
Lee also stressed that Turkmenistan had a history of selling its gas at its border, leaving the buyer to worry about shipping it to market.
"Any European buyer would have to ship Turkmenistan's gas across the Caspian Sea and then at least three transit countries (Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey) before even reaching the border of the European Union," Lee said.