Azernews.Az

The negotiations on a trilateral agreement on the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline are ongoing and are expected to continue "in a constructive atmosphere", a source at the energy department of the European Commission told Trend news agency.

The source said high-level, as well as expert-level meetings to discuss the issue will continue in a month, but no dates have been scheduled yet.

The source said the visit of EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan in early September took place in this context.

The Commission cannot provide further information on the state of the negotiations at this stage, the source said.

The purpose of Oettinger's visit was to discuss the issue of transporting gas from the region to Europe.

"The Commission has always said in the context of the Southern Gas Corridor that it wants to see a dedicated, scalable pipeline because gas is expected to come not only from Azerbaijan, but also from Turkmenistan through the Trans-Caspian Pipeline that is currently being discussed," the source added.

The Trans-Caspian gas pipeline running around 300 kilometres is to be laid from the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, where it will be linked to the Southern Gas Corridor. The Southern Gas Corridor is a priority energy project for the EU aimed at diversifying the routes and sources of supply and thereby increasing European energy security.

The negotiations between Turkmenistan and the EU and other countries on the construction of the Trans-Caspian pipeline have been ongoing since the late 1990s.

In September 2011 the EU issued a mandate for its negotiations with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to build the Trans-Caspian pipeline.