Industry and Energy

Industry and Energy

Richard Morningstar: The failure of Turkey and Azerbaijan to conclude an agreement on gas purchase and transit may hit Southern Corridor project

29 January 2010 09:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Viktoria Dementieva â€“ APA. A Southern Corridor would provide commercial benefit for the countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia, U.S. Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy Richard Morningstar said, APA reports.
Touching on energy problem and prospects of Eurasia in 2010 Richard Morningstar said: â€œWe support opening a new corridor, a Southern Corridor, to bring natural gas from the Caspian region to Europe.â€
â€œA Southern Corridor would provide commercial benefit for the countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia and also create a long-term partnership based on mutual interests with Europe. To that end, we are focused on two areas: encouraging an agreement between Turkey and Azerbaijan on Shah Deniz gas, and encouraging producing countries of Central Asia and the Middle East to supply gas to the corridor. Now, let me be clear, the concept of a Southern Corridor is simply not viable if countries that stand most to benefit from that concept cannot reach commercially sensible, mutually advantageous agreements on the terms under which gas for the Corridor will be transported. In that regard, the failure so far of Turkey and Azerbaijan to conclude an agreement on Shah Deniz gas purchase and transit is somewhat disappointing. Both countries are good friends of the U.S., and we do not take sides in their negotiations. But significant further delays could see the window of opportunity for putting in place this key piece of a Southern Corridor close. It is hard to see how that would serve the interests of either side. We believe the two sides will reach an agreement, hopefully sooner rather than later, so that confidence in the Southern Corridor is not undermined,â€ he said.