Azernews.Az

The European Union has concluded that the West-backed pipeline that will take Caspian gas to world markets is economically viable.
The conduit by-passing Russia is to pump gas from resource-rich Central Asia to Azerbaijan under the Caspian Sea, then to Georgia and Turkey and further to energy-hungry European markets. The NABUCCO project will help European countries to diversify supplies of energy, while the U.S. hopes to ease rival Russia's clout over global gas supplies.
Representatives of the 27-member EU announced after meeting those of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Turkmenistan in Brussels on Friday that research into economic benefits of the trans-Caspian pipeline has drawn to a close. The spokesman for the European Union energy commission Ferran Tarradellas has told Radio Liberty that the evaluation, compiled into a 700-page document, was positive.
"The overall feedback we have received from experts and potential investors suggests that creating a gas route through the Caspian sea-bed is a very good idea," he said.
The EU experts estimate that the Caspian region could meet 15% of Europe's demand for gas by 2020.
Tarradellas said the assessment focused on enviornmental impact of the project, the pipeline's competitiveness and other factors. "The only issue that was not touched on was the status of the Caspian," he added.
Tarradellas reminded that one of the Caspian littoral states - regional powerhouse Russia - says any such projects are out of the question until the coastal nations remove oustanding differences on delimitation of the basin, which contains immense hydrocarbon reserves and valuable caviar stocks.
Building the 3,300-km trans-Caspian conduit under the $5.8 billion project could take until 2011-2012. The pipe's annual throughput capacity is estimated at 31 billion cubic meters. The EU is now seeking sources of funding for the project. The pipe is to be linked when it becomes operational with the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline that goes through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.