Azernews.Az

(AFP, January 15) – Turkmenistan's leader said Saturday his energy-rich country was ready to sell gas to Europe as the EU Commission urged it to apply for membership in the World Trade Organisation.

"Turkmenistan's adhesion to the WTO would exert positive influence on economic development in the country and its attraction for investors," Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said after talks with President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.

"The European Union urges Turkmenistan to apply for WTO membership," he added, while on his first official visit to the country.

The surprising offer came as Barroso continued a trip to secure gas supplies for Europe and met the Turkmen leader for talks focussing on a pipeline across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan as part of the key Southern Gas Corridor.

While no deals were inked with Turkmenistan, the country is "ready to activate work along the European direction," President Berdymukhamedov said Saturday after meeting with Barroso behind closed dooors for two hours.

"We have all the necessary conditions and many ways of delivering gas to Europe," Berdymukhamedov said, speaking in Russian. He said the most attractive project was a pipeline along the bottom of the Caspian Sea, though tankers transporting compressed natural gas across the sea are also an option.

"Partnership with Europe in the gas sphere is a priority," he said.

Barroso showered a rather reserved Berdymukhamedov with compliments and called Turkmenistan an "important economic partner for the European Union" whose growing market is of interest to "a great amount of European companies".

"We support your public declaration of intention to build a pipeline," Barroso said, accoring to remarks translated into Russian.

"We are ready to work together so that Turkmenistan becomes an important participant in the Southern Corridor."

"Europe is ready to purchase gas from Turkmenistan on the border," Barroso said, adding that there is "political will" to construct the Transcaspian pipeline.

The Transcaspian pipeline would connect Turkmenistan with Azerbaijan and could eventually provide a major boost to the European Nabucco project, a natural gas route by-passing Russia to deliver gas to Europe from other producers.

While some analysts have questioned whether Turkmenistan's gas reserves are as vast as announced, Berdymukhamedov has assured that the ¨colossal¨ reserves are enough to satisfy numerous pipeline projects.

"Volumes of Turkmen gas can satisfy any consumer - whatever anyone needs," Berdymukhamedov said on Saturday, adding that there are 21 trillion cubic metres in the South Oloten-Osman group of fields alone.

In September, the Turkmen leader estimated the fields to hold 18 trillion cubic metres. A 2008 audit found 14 trillion.

The Southern Gas Corridor is seen by the EU as vital to future energy security after disputes that disrupted supplies of Russian gas to some European countries.

Barroso has already signed this week a declaration that Azerbaijan will be a "substantial contributor" to the Southern Gas Corridor, though without specific volumes.

Turkmenistan, an isolated but resource-rich Central Asian state on the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea, is thought to hold the world's fourth largest reserves of natural gas.

Ashgabat has been working to diversify away from its reliance on Soviet-era pipelines through Russia since exports of Turkmen gas ground to a halt and soured ties with the Kremlin after a pipeline explosion in 2009.