Azernews.Az

The competition over energy supplies to Europe has been on the rise, with gas exports from Azerbaijan and Russia being the key rival routes. The struggle entails not just deliveries of gas from the two countries, but primarily staunch rivalry for supplies from the resource-rich Central Asian states Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
The governments of Azerbaijan and Russia are seeking the windfall of profits promised by acting as transit states for the exports of Turkmen gas to European markets.
Recent mutual visits by representatives of the interested parties highlight the actions being taken to secure revenues from gas exports. The issue was high on the agenda during last week's visit to Baku by Hungarian economy minister Janos Koka.
"Europe's demand for gas will rise 20%, or 100 billion cubic meters, in the next 20-25 years," the minister said. "We need the NABUCCO pipeline as well as players capable of supplying Caspian gas to Europe, such as Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan."
According to preliminary estimates, $5.8 billion is needed to build the NABUCCO conduit. Building the 3,300-km long pipeline under the Caspian Sea may take until 2011-2012. The pipe's annual throughput capacity is estimated at 31 billion cubic meters. The conduit bypassing Russia is to pump gas from the Caspian region, the Middle East and Central Asia to Europe - via Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Austria. Austrian OMV company with 20% participating interest operates the project.
The Hungarian minister said Europe was placing an emphasis on diversifying energy supply routes.
"There are three directions for this - the NABUCCO project, gas deliveries from Russia and the construction of terminals in Europe to store liquid natural gas. We would like to focus on NABUCCO and are pleased that Azerbaijan has launched exports of its gas to Europe," he said.
After visiting Azerbaijan Koka was expected to travel to Ashgabat to enquire about Turkmenistan's position on the preparedness for the transportation of hydrocarbons to European markets through the Caspian Sea.
On November 18, a landmark gas pipeline from Turkey to Greece that will take Azerbaijan's gas to Europe opened. The 300-km conduit will take natural gas from the Caspian region and the Middle East to Italy and the rest of Western Europe through Turkey and Greece. 210 km of the conduit pass through Turkey and the remaining 87 km via Greece. In the initial stage, it will transport 250m cubic meters of gas a year, with the volume to be brought to 11.5bn cubic meters in the following 15 years. The project has been welcomed by the United States as the conduit bypasses Russia and lessens Europe's reliance on gas supplies from the West's long-standing rival and the volatile Middle East. Azerbaijan is required to double gas output in the next four to five years to fill the pipeline.
Nonetheless, European countries will face a daunting task of convincing Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to start exporting their gas through Azerbaijan, not Russia. Moscow has already sealed a victory over the West in its struggle for Turkmen gas supplies by building the Blue Stream pipeline, an alternate route launched by Ankara and Moscow in 1997 to transport Russian gas to Turkey through the Black Sea.
President Vladimir Putin's administration also made everything possible this time to prevent Turkmenistan's seceding from its sphere of influence. Russia agreed several months ago with Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to build a new gas pipeline along the Caspian coastline, which apparently counters European Union plans for the trans-Caspian route.
Presidents Putin, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, and Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a relevant letter of intent in the Turkmen port city of Turkmenbashi on May 12. The construction of a new pipeline to take Turkmenistan's gas to Europe through Russia and Kazakhstan is expected to kick off in 2008. The three leaders instructed their governments to draft and ink the deal soon, but the trilateral agreement has yet to be signed. The deal is largely seen as a setback to rival US and European Union plans.
Turkmenistan's President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said Ashgabat offered Russia to accelerate the launch of construction operations. "We are able to start implementing the project earlier," he told the press after talks between the two countries' governments on Friday.
Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said the document will be signed shortly and that the sides had agreed on speeding up the start of building the pipeline.
Moscow has a strong clout over Turkmenistan's massive gas reserves, as the Central Asian state relies on Russian energy giant Gazprom's pipelines for distribution.