Bloomberg spoke about obstacles to gas supplies from Turkmenistan to the EU

Turkmenistan, which occupies the fourth place in the world in terms of gas reserves, loses to other countries when planning supplies to Europe, including in connection with the problems of financing the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline. As writes Bloombergthe attractiveness of a large gas project is reduced as it can be replaced by a cheaper and faster option.

An unnamed EU official told Bloomberg about the lack of contact with Turkmenistan regarding gas exports. At the same time, the United States is increasing supplies of liquefied natural gas to Europe, Israel is preparing a gas project in the Mediterranean, the potential customer of which is the EU.

According to experts, Turkmenistan needs to establish communication channels with EU countries in order to organize supplies. At the same time, the construction of the Trans-Caspian pipeline may take years. According to Bloomberg, a smaller project would allow gas exports to Europe to begin in a few months.

The project of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline has been discussed since the mid-1990s. It involves the transportation of gas from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan through Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey, and from there to the EU countries. The project capacity is 30 billion cubic meters. m per year. Its cost is estimated at $5 billion. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that the issue of financing the gas pipeline has not yet been resolved.

Lusine Balasyan