Baku, February 6 (Interfax) - Building the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline could cost from $1 billion to $2 billion, Azerbaijani Industry and Energy Minister Natik Aliyev said.
“It is difficult now to talk about the cost of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline. For example, in a 1998 evaluation of the project for the construction of a gas pipeline up to the border of Turkey it was estimated at $3 billion. I think that at the present time the cost of laying the gas pipeline along the Caspian floor could run to $1 billion to $2 billion,” Aliyev said.
All in all, where the possibility of carrying out the project is concerned, “the Trans-Caspian pipeline project is a rather complex affair,” he said.
“We regularly have meetings, during which the preparation of two documents is discussed. The first is a political document between Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and the European Union regarding support for the realization of this route and the significance of building the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline. The second document is an intergovernmental agreement between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan concerning the gas pipeline’s construction,” the minister said.
The second document is already ready, he said, but there are a number of unclear aspects with Turkmenistan that require resolution. In particular, Turkmenistan expresses agreement on pumping about 30 billion cubic meters of gas through the pipeline per year, but with a stipulation on delivering it to the European Union at its border.
“Questions arise in this connection. Who will build the gas pipeline for transporting Turkmen gas? Who will finance the construction? Who will deliver Turkmen gas to Azerbaijan? What company or consortium will buy this gas and effect its transit through Azerbaijan to Europe? And there are other questions,” Aliyev said.
Azerbaijan is fully prepared to provide for the transit of Turkmen gas through its territory, he said. “If the commercial attractiveness of the Trans-Caspian pipeline project is confirmed, Azerbaijan might also take part in its financing, but we cannot undertake the construction ourselves. Turkmenistan and the EU should be interested in this most of all,” he said.
In September of 2011, the Council of the European Union extended a mandate for negotiations between the EU, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan over the pipeline’s construction. The plan is for the roughly 300-km pipeline to be laid from Turkey’s Caspian coast to the cost of Azerbaijan, where it will connect with the Southern Gas Corridor.
