Lot of questions, no answers about Turkmen gas supply to Europe - Azerbaijani president
BAKU. April 25 (Interfax) - Turkmen gas supply to Europe will become possible after the problem with funding construction of an export gas pipeline to be built from Turkmenistan on the Caspian Sea bottom is solved and international gas transmission systems have available capacities, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.
"First of all, if this decision is made [to build a gas pipeline for supplies of Turkmen gas to Europe], it must be made by Turkmenistan. If they decide to build a Trans Caspian gas pipeline, going under the Caspian and then through Azerbaijan to Europe, they will approach us. So far, they haven't. And of course, we will not initiate this project. Because usually, the country which is the owner of resources is implementing the project," Aliyev said at a meeting with participants in the COP29 and Green Vision for Azerbaijan international forum.
He said he could not recall a single case of a transit country taking the matters of financing or initiating a project into its hands.
"So far, we haven't received any messages from Turkmenistan. Therefore, I cannot comment on that. There are a lot of discussions about that. But my advice is just to evaluate a variety of factors. First, who will pay for that? Second, what will be the non-cooperative financing, taking into account what I already said about restrictions of European financial institutions to finance fossil fuel projects? Who will be the recipients of this gas, and what will happen after the gas is delivered to Azerbaijan?" Aliyev said.
"Today, the Southern Gas Corridor [which supplies Azerbaijan's gas to Europe] is fully packed. We today, think about the expansion of TANAP and expansion of TAP [both parts of the Southern Gas Corridor]. So, if somebody thinks that building a pipeline under the Caspian makes the deal done, it is not. Because either there must be another pipeline all the way down from Baku to Europe or I don't know. So, a lot of questions, and no answers," he said.
Turkmenistan has been discussing possible construction of a Trans-Caspian gas pipeline with an annual capacity of 10 billion to 30 billion cubic meters of gas with Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia and the European Union for years.
Moscow and Tehran were opposed to the project for a long time. However, the presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Iran signed the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea in Aktau, Kazakhstan, in August 2018. The convention says there is no need for consent of all Caspian countries to start laying a pipeline on the Caspian Sea bottom, and the project must be coordinated only by host countries. In case of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline, these are Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.