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Steven Mann: â€œAs soon as Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan reach an agreement on the Caspian pipeline, there can be no barrier to this project - there is no legal challengeâ€

17 June 2008 13:53 (UTC +04:00)

But the US government’s long-term policy is to support the sovereignty, stability and independence of the new states of the Caspian regionâ€, said Steven Mann, US State Department senior adviser on the Eurasian issues told in his interview with HVG.hu. He said in the 1990s, the region’s governments were telling that large parts of their economy depended on the monopolies of Transneft, which operates the Russian pipeline system, and Gazprom. â€We also sense that our European allies’ demand for gas is rising fast. Indeed, whereas the consortium of companies behind Nabucco has already been set up, and while the feasibility studies are already being constructed, South Stream hasn’t got this far. Azerbaijan is already exporting gas to Turkey, and the president has made a solemn promise to export to Europe as well. So we are calling for more gas production, for the second phase of Azerbaijan’s Shahdeniz gas field to be started, for example. We asked the Azeri government to make it possible to extract gas from deeper strata, for exampleâ€. Steven Mann said as soon as Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan reach an agreement on the Caspian pipeline, there can be no barrier to this project - there is no legal challenge. He underlined the Turkmenistanâ€™s cooperation with foreign companies as a positive aspect of Nabucco Project. â€œTurkmenistan used not to let foreign energy companies operate in the country. The new Turkmen president has changed his position and set ambitious production aims. And Iraq could also eventually supply gas to Nabuccoâ€. Steven Mann said his country opposed all kinds of energy cooperation with Iran. â€œAnd why would Europe want to work more closely with a regime which calls for Israel’s destruction, supports terrorism directly and builds weapons of mass destruction?â€