- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan agree on Caspian gas pipe -1

Subscribe
Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan agreed to build a gas pipeline along the Caspian coast and will sign the deal by September 1, a joint declaration of the three presidents said Saturday.
(Recasts, adds paragraphs 4-7, 9-11)

TURKMENBASHI, May 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan agreed to build a gas pipeline along the Caspian coast and will sign the deal by September 1, a joint declaration of the three presidents said Saturday.

The pipeline will run from Turkmenistan along the Caspian coast of Kazakhstan and on to Russia, the sole re-exporter of the Turkmen gas. It is a rival project to a U.S.-sponsored Trans-Caspian pipeline across the Caspian Sea to carry Turkmen gas to southern Europe bypassing Russia.

Following their summit meeting in Turkmenistan, Vladimir Putin, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov instructed their governments to start the construction of the pipeline from the second half of 2008.

Putin also said the new project and the restoration of Soviet-era Central Asian pipelines leading to Russia would make it possible to increase transportation by at least 12 billion cubic meters by 2012.

Alexei Miller, the chief executive of Russian energy giant Gazprom [RTS: GAZP], said the two projects would help increase supplies of Turkmen gas to 80 billion cu m a year within the Russia-Turkmenistan contract until 2028.

In September, Russia and Turkmenistan agreed on terms of Turkmen gas supplies for 2007-2009 at a price of $100 per 1,000 cu m and set the volume at 50 billion cu m a year.

Despite the agreement on the Caspian pipeline, Turkmenistan's president, however, said that the Trans-Caspian project bypassing Russia remained on the agenda, thereby rejecting the Russian energy minister's contrary assurances.

"The whole world is looking for ways to diversify gas supplies," Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov said.

Putin's Central Asian tour of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan coincided with an energy summit in Poland May 11-13 aimed at reducing energy dependence on Russia. Kazakhstan's Nazarbayev, its key participant, pulled out from the forum also being attended by Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Lithuania.

Turkmenistan gas production

The Russian leader signaled his country's readiness to invest in the development of Turkmenistan's gas field on the Caspian shelf. "Russia is ready to invest in gas production as well as in the pipeline system," Putin told reporters. "Our energy companies have already agreed on such investment."

Russia's industry and energy minister, Viktor Khristenko, said Russian companies would develop the gas field under a production-sharing agreement (PSA), a format envisaging substantial privileges to foreign investors.

"The best option is a production-sharing agreement," Khristenko said. "This is the position of the owners of the field." He also said Kazakh companies would fit well into the PSA.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала