Russian Press: Turkmenistan Ready to Supply Gas for Nabucco

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov (L) has indicated his country was ready to supply gas for Nabucco; here with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (R), Moscow, Russia, 25 March 2009.

The Central Asian state of Turkmenistan is ready to become a supplier of natural gas for EU's Nabucco pipeline project.

The Russian newspaper Vedomosti, as cited by BGNES, points to the statement of Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov that the country was "ready to participate in large international projects, for example - Nabucco".

Vedomosti stresses that was the first time Turkmenistan's leadership admitted it was ready to join Nabucco.

According to the CEO of East European Gas Analysis, Mihail Korchemkin, as cited by Vedomosti, Russia has made a number of mistakes showing to Turkmenistan it was not a reliable partner, and pushing the country to join Nabucco and other projects without Russian involvement.

Another analyst, Konstantin Simonov, Director of the Russian Fund for National Energy Security, points out that the growing ambitions of the Central Asian states based on their energy resources were going to hurt both Russia and the EU, which was now going to have to comply with Turkey - Nabucco's major transit state; at the same time, China appeared to reap the main benefits of the new situation (the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan is expected to become operational in November 2009.

The agreement for Nabucco's construction is going to be signed Monday, July 13, 2009, by representatives of Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Turkey in Ankara. The reliability of the suppliers of natural gas to fill the new pipeline has been questioned. Turkmenistan is the number two natural gas exporter after Russia but until recently the Russian company Gazprom had a monopoly over the purchase of it gas export.

 

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