The natural gas pipeline will run from Turkmenistan along the Caspian coast of Kazakhstan and onto Russia, and will pump 10-20 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe via Russia's pipeline network.
Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Naryshkin said President Vladimir Putin had instructed the government to make the most of a planned working visit by Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev in order to move ahead with the implementation of the project.
The deputy premier said the agreement also involved a provision on a feasibility study of the project, the implementation of which will begin in the second half of 2008. The document remains to be ratified. "The agreement is ready for signing," Naryshkin said.
Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan agreed to build the pipeline in May 2007 and were to finalize it in September, but had failed to agree on the price of supplies. On November 27, the sides agreed on the price of $130 per 1,000 cubic meters of Turkmen gas.
In late November, a Russian government official said the agreement would be signed by the end of this year.
The pipeline is a rival project to a Western-backed trans-Caspian pipeline that bypasses Russia, currently the sole re-exporter of Turkmen gas.
