Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline

The Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline (Turkmen: Transhazar turbaly geçiriji) is a proposed submarine pipeline between Türkmenbaşy in Turkmenistan, and Baku in Azerbaijan. By some proposals it will also include connection between Tengiz Field in Kazakhstan, and Türkmenbaşy. The aim of the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline project is the transportation of natural gas from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to central Europe, circumventing both Russia and Iran.

Description of pipeline

The planned capacity of the pipeline is 30 billion cubic meter (bcm) of natural gas per annum, and the estimated cost will be around US$ 5 billion. In Baku it will be connected with the South Caucasus Pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline), and through this with the planned Nabucco Pipeline (Turkey-Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria pipeline).cite news
url = http://www.caucaz.com/home_eng/depeches.php?idp=1064
title= Trans-caspian gas pipeline project: Azerbaijan might transit Kazakhstan gas to Georgia
publisher = CAUCAZ.COM
date=2006-04-23
accessdate=2007-05-20] The feasibility study of the pipeline will be carried out by Granherne, a subsidiary of KBR.cite news
url = http://www.downstreamtoday.com/News/Articles/200804/KBR_To_Study_Feasibility_of_Trans_Caspia_10091.aspx
title= KBR To Study Feasibility of Trans Caspian Pipeline
publisher = Downstream Today
date=2008-04-14
accessdate=2008-04-19] However, it is unlikely that the project will go beyond the planning stages in the near future.

History

End of 1990s

The project of natural gas import from Turkmenistan through the submarine pipeline was suggested in 1996 by the United States.cite news
url = http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20070514/65456353.html
title = Energy nexus: Russia and Central Asia
publisher = RIA Novosti
date = 2007-05-14
accessdate = 2007-05-20] In February 1999, the Turkmen government entered into an agreement with General Electric and Bechtel Group for a feasibility study on the proposed pipeline.cite news
url = http://www.bechtel.com/newsarticles/190.asp
title = PSG International Secures Lead Role in US$2.5 Billion TransCaspian Pipeline Project
publisher = Bechtel
date = 1999-02-19
accessdate = 2007-05-20] In 1999, while attending the OSCE meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan signed a number of agreements on the construction of pipelines.cite news
author = Miriam Lanskoy
url = http://www.bu.edu/iscip/vol10/Lanskoy.html
title = Can the OSCE Cope with the Caucasus?
publisher = Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology, and Policy
date = November - December 1999
accessdate = 2007-05-20] cite news
url = http://www.hri.org/news/balkans/rferl/1999/99-11-19.rferl.html#13
title = Transcaspian gas pipeline accord signed
publisher = RFE/RL
date = 1999-11-19
accessdate = 2007-05-20] However, because of Russia’s and Iran’s opposition to the project, the unresolved legal dispute of the Caspian Sea boundaries and the gas discovery on Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field, the submarine pipeline project was shelved in the summer of 2000 and only the South Caucasus Pipeline project was developed.cite news
url = http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=44743
title = End of Russian Monopoly in Energy?!
publisher = The Journal of Turkish Weekly
date = 2007-05-02
accessdate = 2007-05-20]

2006-2007

In January 2006, as a result of the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute, interest in the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline project was rekindled.cite news
author = Vladimir Socor
Publication = Eurasia Daily Monitor
url=http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2370697
title= Interest Rebounds in Trans-Caspian Pipeline for Turkmen Gas
publisher = The Jamestown Foundation
date=2006-01-24
accessdate=2007-05-20] On 11 January 2006, Azerbaijan's prime-minister Artur Rasizade proposed to his Kazakhstan colleague Danial Ahmetov that Kazakhstan gas be exported through the South Caucasus Pipeline to Turkey and further on to the European market.cite news
author = Ilham Shaban
url=http://www.azerbaijantoday.az/ARCHIVE/16/economics4.html
title=The US Government Commences Lobbying Trans Caspian Pipeline Of This Project
publisher = Azerbaijan Today
date=May/June 2006
accessdate=2007-05-20] In March 2006, the Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov signaled his intention to rejoin possible negotiations on the pipeline. In May 2006, during his visit to Kazakhstan, the European Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs stated EU support for the construction of the Trans-Caspian pipeline.cite news
url = http://www.balticbusinessnews.com/newsletter/060508_bbn_newsletter.pdf
title = EU approves giant Transcaspian pipeline project
publisher = BBN Newsletter
format = PDF
date=2006-05-08
accessdate=2007-05-20] Vladimir Socor, however, had noted that the Ukrainian government seemed to prefer trilateral talks between Turkmenistan, Russia and Ukraine, not taking the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline into consideration.Azerbaijan's Industry and Energy Minister Natig Aliyev, while addressing an international energy conference in Baku, outlined the advantages of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline for diversifying supplies and restraining prices.cite news
author = Vladimir Socor
Publication = Eurasia Daily Monitor
url=http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2370929
title=Azerbaijan Spearheading Initiative on Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline
publisher = The Jamestown Foundation
date=2006-03-30
accessdate=2007-05-20] On the other hand, Russia's Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko commented: "Existing technical, legal, environmental and other risks relating to the trans-Caspian project are so great that it would be impossible to find an investor. Unless this is a political project, and then it does not matter what would be inside the pipeline as long as it exists". [cite news
url=http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=21640
title=Putin Triumphant in Turkmen Gas Deal
publisher=St. Petersburg Times (Russia)
date=2007-05-15
accessdate=2007-05-19]

On 12 May 2007 Vladimir Putin of Russia, Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow of Turkmenistan signed an agreement providing for Central Asian gas to be exported to Europe through the reconstructed and expanded western branch of the Central Asia-Center gas pipeline system, thereby dealing a blow to the hopes that the Trans-Caspian Pipeline will materialise in the nearest future, although Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow said that the Trans-Caspian pipeline project was not cancelled. [cite news
url=http://www.neurope.eu/view_news.php?id=73862
title=Putin deal torpedoes Trans-Caspian gas pipeline plans
publisher=New Europe (Belgium)
date=2007-05-17
accessdate=2007-05-19] [cite news
url=http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2007/05/13/afx3715292.html
title=Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan agree landmark gas pipeline deal
publisher=Forbes
date=2007-05-13
accessdate=2007-05-19] Ironically, on the same day the presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania met in Kraków to discuss plans for the energy routes bypassing Russia, [cite news
url=http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2007/05/11/afx3712998.html
title=Six countries agree on oil pipeline bypassing Russia
publisher=Forbes Magazine
date=2007-05-11
accessdate=2007-05-19] and the failure of the summit provoked a schadenfroh reaction from Moscow. [cite news
author = Sergei Blagov
url=http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav051607.shtml
title=Russia Celebrates Its Central Asian Energy Coup
publisher=EurasiaNet
date=2007-05-16
accessdate=2007-05-19]

2008

On September 4, 2008, Mehti Safari, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, told journalists that Tehran opposes the construction of any undersea pipelines in the Caspian [cite news
url=http://www.oilru.com/news/81667/
title=Иран против прокладки трубопроводов по дну Каспия
publisher=OILRU.COM
date=2008-09-04
accessdate=2008-09-06] . This greatly jeopardizes the completion of the Trans-Caspian Gas pipeline, according to regional expert Paul Goble [cite news
author = Paul Goble
url=http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2008/09/window-on-eurasia-moscow-wins-major.html
title=Moscow Wins a Major Victory on Pipelines
publisher=Window On Eurasia
date=2008-09-05
accessdate=2008-09-06] .

Critics

The project is heavily criticized by Russia and Iran, current export countries of Turkmen gas. Alexander Golovin, special envoy on Caspian issues, has stated that a major gas pipeline would pose a serious, dangerous risk to the prosperity of the entire region.cite news
author = Sergei Blagov
url = http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav032806.shtml
title = Russia Tries To Scuttle Proposed Trans-Caspian Pipeline
publisher = EurasiaNet
date = 2006-03-28
accessdate = 2007-05-20] According to the Russian Natural Resources Ministry, any gas or oil pipelines across the floor of the Caspian Sea would be environmentally unacceptable.cite news
url = http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070125/59687576.html
title = Russia says pipelines across Caspian Sea floor unacceptable
publisher = RIA Novosti
date = 2007-01-25
accessdate = 2008-06-01] Russia has also taken the legal position that a potential pipeline project, regardless of the route it takes on the seabed, would require the consent of all five Caspian littoral states in order to proceed. Iran has pointed out that treaties signed by Iran and the Soviet Union in 1921 and 1940 are still in force and that any action taken without the consent of all the littoral states will be considered illegal.cite news
url = http://www.atimes.com/c-asia/AB24Ag02.html
title = Iran warns against trans-Caspian pipeline
publisher = Asia Times
date = 1999-02-24
accessdate = 2007-05-20] As a reaction to the 1999 plans for a Trans-Caspian gas pipeline, in 2001 and 2002 Russia and Iran collaborated in calls for a Central Asian gas cartelcite news
author = Stephen Blank
url = http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav051707.shtml
title = Russia Takes a Step Towards the Formation of a Natural Gas Cartel
publisher = EurasiaNet
date = 2007-05-15
accessdate = 2007-05-22] .There was also some Western concern that closer collaboration between Georgia and Azerbaijan would leave Armenia isolated and tempted to strengthen ties with Russia and Iran. In recent years however, ties between Armenia and Russia have been strained, sidelining concerns.

ee also

*South Caucasus Pipeline
*Nabucco Pipeline
*Shah Deniz gas field
*Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline
*Trans-Caspian Oil Pipeline
*Energy policy of Russia
*Russia-Belarus energy dispute

References

External links

* [http://www.sras.org/geopolitics_of_oil_pipelines_in_central_asia The Geopolitics of Oil Pipelines in Central Asia] , Article on the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline featured in Vestnik, the Journal of Russian and Asian Studies Winter 2007