Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Oct. 25
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
A meeting on the Caspian Sea - Black Sea international transport corridor project is being held at the expert level in Ashgabat, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The event is attended by representatives of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania, Turkmenistan and the EU contact office. The participants of the meeting are exploring the possibility of introducing at the national level the legal and regulatory acts conducive to creating a new transport corridor. The review of the existing transport infrastructures of the participating countries and the possibilities for their expansion has already taken place.
Following the results of the review, it is planned to adopt a joint protocol.
It is expected that the Romanian Constanta port could become a point of transshipment in the EU of the goods transported from the Turkmen port of Turkmenbashi, as well as from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The State Service of Maritime and River Transportation of Turkmenistan has been exploring in recent years the possibility of transporting cargo, including liquefied gas, to Constanta port. The supply route involves the use of special containers and runs through the Caspian Sea to Baku (Azerbaijan), then by rail to Batumi or Poti (Georgia, the Black Sea region) and from there by sea to Romania.
In early May 2018, the opening ceremony of an international seaport took place in the Caspian Turkmenbashi city. With the commissioning of this port, the remarkable opportunities have appeared for sending the cargo arriving in Turkmenbashi along the Silk Road route from Asian countries, further to European countries through the ports of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran.
The new port complex includes common loading terminal, bulk cargo terminal, polypropylene terminal. The port’s intake capacity will amount to 17-18 million tons per year. Together with the previously operating port, this figure will increase to 25-26 million tons. The container terminal has an average annual capacity of 400,000 TEU.