Turkmenistan launches new gas pipeline eying western markets

Turkmenistan has announced completion of a $2.5-billion gas pipeline, which connects gas fields in the eastern part of Central Asian country to the Caspian Sea.

"With the completion of the East-West pipeline, cooperation with our European partners acquires a new quality," said Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow addressing the opening ceremony at the Belek compressor station, some 500 km northwest of the capital, Ashgabat, on Wednesday.

The pipeline, known as East-West pipeline, which runs for approximately 800 kilometers (500 miles), can potentially connect Turkmenistan, which possesses the world's fourth largest gas reserves, to markets in Europe through a link that will traverse the Caspian Sea, AFP reported.

Energy analysts maintain that the East-West pipeline is an important component of a bigger link, which is planned by the European Union, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia to transfer natural gas along the floor of the Caspian Sea before connecting with other pipelines traveling into Europe.

The proposed Trans-Caspian pipeline is expected to cost around $5 billion and when complete, will be able to carry as much as 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually to the member states of the European Union.

The development came less than two weeks after Turkmenistan started building its part of a $10 billion natural gas pipeline, which will travel through Afghanistan, Pakistan and India and is considered as a staunch rival to a similar project from Iran.

According to Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline will be completed by December 2019 with a capacity to transfer 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari also attended the event.

State gas monopoly Turkmengas and another company will build Turkmenistan’s stretch of the TAPI pipeline to the Afghan border.

Turkmengas leads the TAPI consortium named after the four countries and expects to be joined by Western companies at later stages.

However, insecurity in Afghanistan which is facing a resurgent militancy and the region’s complex geopolitics has forced Western giants such as Chevron, Exxon, BP and Total to refrain from committing to the project.

Turkmenistan sees the project vital to its bid to diversify gas exports. The country relies on 30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas sold annually to China. 

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