Focusing on Trans-Caspian Pipes to Diversify Supplies

The United States is determined to find new routes, through Azerbaijan and Georgia, to ensure the delivery of Turkmenistan’s natural gas to western markets, U.S. Ambassador to Georgia John Tefft said on March 22.

Speaking at the sixth Georgian International Oil, Gas, Infrastructures and Energy (GIOGIE) conference, which opened in Tbilisi on March 22, Ambassador Tefft said expanding Georgia’s role as a transit point for oil and gas from Central Asia would depend on attracting new volumes from countries such as Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

As far as natural gas is concerned, “Turkmenistan has a big role to play if it chooses to do so,” Mr. Tefft said. He added that a senior U.S. diplomat in charge of Caspian energy issues, Steven Mann, had visited Turkmenistan earlier this month.

“We want to see Turkmenistan develop its energy reserves in a fashion that gives them market prices for their energy; that gives them different options for export,” Ambassador Tefft said.

Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli was on a working visit to Turkmenistan on March 22-23, where he held talks with Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and other government members.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said in his state of the nation address in Parliament on March 15 that there is increasing international interest in the construction of a trans-Caspian pipeline to transport Central Asian hydrocarbons to Europe via Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Speaking at the conference in Tbilisi Ambassador Tefft underlined that the U.S. government wished to promote diversification of energy supplies and suppliers.

“We are strongly in favor of competition, not confrontation,” he said.

“The most important thing now is not how to divide the pie of natural resources available in this region, but how to enlarge the whole pie to the benefit of the region’s inhabitants and world markets,” Ambassador Tefft said, reiterating sentiments voiced by U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Clay Sell who visited Tbilisi on March 15-16.

Speaking about the transportation of oil, Ambassador Tefft said that currently companies are focusing on bringing Kazakh oil across the Caspian by ship, but the use of pipelines would be needed as volumes increase.   

“From the environmental perspective a pipeline would of course be much safer than shipping,” he added.

Meanwhile, Georgian Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze, who is on a visit to the United States, warned the European Union not to let Russia obstruct the implementation of projects which aim at the diversification of gas supplies to Europe via the Caucasus and Turkey rather than Russia.

Speaking at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on March 20, Ms. Burjanadze said that Moscow’s “desperate attempts” to regain control over Georgia are largely triggered by a desire to take over alternative routes for the transporation of Central Asian energy resources to western markets.

“At this stage Russia’s top priority is to secure its energy monopoly by frustrating the EU’s Nabucco Project, which if completed would provide much needed relief from an overdependence on Russian gas,” Ms. Burjanadze said.

The Nabucco Project is a planned pipeline to transport natural gas from Turkey to Austria, via Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary.

“If Europe allows Russia to stop the Nabucco Project – this truly important energy project aimed at the transportation of Kazakh and Turkmen natural gas through Turkey to Europe – Europe itself will be at the mercy of Gazprom,” Nino Burjanadze said.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov signed a memorandum in Washington on March 22 calling for deepening already strong cooperation among the two countries on energy security in the Caspian region

“Of particular focus will be the realization of the Turkey-Greece-Italy gas pipeline, and potentially the Nabucco and other pipelines, with Azerbaijani gas, to help Europe bolster its energy security by diversifying its natural gas supplies,” a spokesman at the U.S. Department of State said.