Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 11 / Trend A.Badalova/
The Trans Caspian gas pipeline project, which could be implemented within the "Southern Gas Corridor", has good chances, Professor of International Relations at the American University of Paris, Terence Murphy believes.
"Given the progress at the ministerial levels, there is now a higher probability that the Trans Caspian pipeline project will be implemented," Murphy told Trend via e-mail.
Murphy stressed that the Trans Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) pipeline is being designed to significantly increase its capacity, allowing then for the transit of Turkmenistan gas towards Europe.
However, he believes that there is reason for caution.
"Russia has no intention of facilitating the Trans Caspian pipeline as the increased volumes of gas traveling along the southern corridor, would compete with its own project, South Stream," Murphy said.
At the same time Murphy did not exclude the possibility that a feasible path for Turkmenistan gas to follow would be east and south towards China, whose appetite for energy from all sources can only increase over time.
The Trans-Caspian gas pipeline is planned to be laid from the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea to the Azerbaijani coast. The pipeline length will hit about 300 kilometers.
Negotiations on the construction of the pipeline between Turkmenistan, the EU and other countries have been held since the late 1990s.
The negotiation process has been intensified after the European Union delivered a mandate to start negotiations on the preparation of an agreement between the EU, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on the Trans-Caspian project in September 2011. However, Iran and Russia later expressed their negative attitude towards the project. Tehran and Moscow think the pipeline construction may damage the Caspian Sea's ecology.
Earlier Azerbaijani Minister of Industry and Energy Natiq Aliyev said that two documents which must be signed at the level of the Azerbaijani, Turkmen presidents, head of the European Commission and the governments of the two Caspian-littoral countries, are being prepared within the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project.
He said that three sides will support the corridor within the first document. The second document must be signed between the Azerbaijani and Turkmen governments.