Azernews.Az

ASHGABAT – The Nabucco gas pipeline consortium has said it was optimistic about the construction of a trans-Caspian pipeline that will transport Turkmen gas to Europe.

"We are very optimistic that a trans-Caspian pipeline will be also implemented after Nabucco has firm supply commitments from the suppliers," spokesman Christian Dolezal told Azerbaijan’s Trend news agency on Friday.

The construction of the pipeline would be economically viable for all parties involved, Dolezal said.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, on an official visit to Bucharest this week, said the Central Asian state was ready to cooperate with the European Union in the gas sector.

Berdymukhamedov termed as "an important condition for mutually beneficial energy cooperation" the political will of the parties involved, which he said should be enshrined in an agreement between the EU, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

Romanian President Traian Basescu, hosting Berdymukhamedov, stressed the importance of building the trans-Caspian gas pipeline to ensure reliability and security of energy supplies to European markets.

The trans-Caspian gas pipeline is considered an integral part of the Nabucco project, designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU. The 300-kilometer pipeline will be laid from the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan where it will be linked to the Nabucco pipeline. Talks between Turkmenistan and the EU and other countries on the construction of the trans-Caspian pipeline have been underway since the late 1990s. Its construction has been hampered by the unresolved status of the resource-rich Caspian Sea.

During his visit to Romania, the Turkmen president also expressed interest in the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector (AGRI) pipeline project. In a joint statement after talks with Basescu, the two countries stressed the importance of Turkmen natural gas supplies to Europe, including through Nabucco and AGRI projects that are a priority for Romania.

Nabucco spokesman Dolezal said the project consortium does not see any danger in Turkmenistan’s participation in the AGRI project. "AGRI is a complementary project to Nabucco and has no impact at all on our timeline," he said.

The AGRI project envisages transporting Azerbaijani gas to the Black Sea coast of Georgia where the gas will be liquefied at an LNG terminal. Further, the LNG will be transported by tankers to the Romanian port of Constanta and then, in the form of natural gas, will be supplied to customers in Romania and other European countries.

It is expected that Turkmenistan, participating in the project as a supplier, could deliver liquefied natural gas across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan for its further transit to Europe.

The AGRI project cost may vary from 1.2 billion to 4.5 billion euros.

Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary signed an agreement on the AGRI project in Baku last September.

The Nabucco pipeline will carry up to 31 billion cubic meters a year of gas from the Caspian region and the Middle East across Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey into southeast Europe and onwards to an Austrian trading hub, bypassing Russia. According to the pipeline consortium, construction is due to start in 2013 and operations in 2017. Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Iraq are potential suppliers for the Nabucco pipeline. The project's shareholders are the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE.