Industry and Energy

Home page

Industry and Energy

GÃ¼nther Oettinger: â€˜Negotiations between the European Commission and Azerbaijan on TransCaspian gas pipe may be completed in mid of 2012â€™

27 April 2012 13:57 (UTC +04:00)

â€œThe Function of the European Commission is not to give a guarantee, its function to organize the workâ€, added Oettinger.

Remind that, on September 7, 2011, EU gave a mandate to the European Commission for conduction of talks with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on TransCaspian project. On September 13, Russian Foreign Ministry declared that until 5 Caspian littoral states do not determine the status of the Caspian Sea, the TransCaspian project will not be implemented. Nevertheless, the European Commission started negotiations with the abovementioned countries on legal basis of the gas pipe.

Trans Caspian Pipeline project will connect Turkmenistan and Azerbaijanâ€™s Caspian Sea coast for transportation of natural gas to Europe thgourh the terriotyr of Azerbaijan. The expected annual capacity of the Tengiz (Kazakhstan) Turkmenbashi (Turkmenistan) Baku (Azerbaijan) Tbilisi (Georgia) Erzurum (Turkey) route amounts to 20-30 billion cubic meters of gas. The cost of the project is estimated at 7.9 billion euros.