Turkmenistan still plans to build gas pipeline across Caspian to Europe

ABU DHABI. Nov 1 (Interfax) - Turkmenistan still hopes to build a gas pipeline across the Caspian Sea to Europe.

"The Trans-Caspian project is not being taken off the agenda," Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister Shakhym Abdrakhmanov said at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC).

He said this project calls for building a gas pipeline through Azerbaijan to Georgia and onward to Eastern European countries.

Construction is also continuing on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, Abdrakhmanov said.

"We are also developing the internal gas pipeline network. The 800-km East-West gas pipeline, for example, connects almost all of Turkmenistan's large fields and can supply all export markets and the country's domestic needs, including Europe," Abdrakhmanov said.

He said Turkmenistan's potential resources amount to 71.2 billion tonnes of oil equivalent, including 53 billion tonnes onshore and 18.2 billion tonnes offshore. More than 190 oil and gas fields have been discovered.

The reserves of the Central Asian country's largest field, Galkynysh, and structures adjoining it are estimated at 27.4 trillion cubic meters of gas. Turkmenistan exports gas to Russia, China and Iran.