Speaking in May, Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev confirmed that Baku would be happy to transit Turkmen gas, but would not help fund any pipelines and called on the companies developing Turkmenistan’s gas fields, international investors and the gas buyers in Europe interested in taking the gas to arrange financing.
Already one of the world’s largest gas exporters, in order to further develop its remaining gas reserves and resources, Turkmenistan aims to further increase exports both to existing customers and to open up new corridors to international gas markets.
If a pipeline for Europe-bound exports is built, Turkmenistan stands to capture some of Russia’s European gas markets and/or replace Russian exports to Turkey. Russia currently provides around 40 percent of Turkey’s gas needs. Previous Trans-Caspian projects envisaged pipelines that could supply 32 bcm annually.
With estimated gas reserves of between 10-14 trillion cubic meters – the fifth largest on the planet – interest in transiting Turkmen gas across the Caspian Sea, and through Georgia and Turkey to Europe, is not new.
And the signs are that it’s not just EU member states that are interested. On May 25, Turkey’s energy regulator EPDK issued another 10-year import license to Turkey’s state gas importer Botas for importing gas from Turkmenistan, the second time that license has been renewed.
A big shift is brewing for Caspian Basin energy exports. In a diplomatic about-face, Turkmenistan has signaled its readiness to develop a Trans-Caspian pipeline that potentially could increase natural gas deliveries to the European Union.