Turkmenistan open to talks with Europe on Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project to supply its gas through Azerbaijan and Turkey. This was stated by Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov at the regional conference "Caspian Sea - Sea of Peace and Friendship", which opened in the resort of Avaza.
"In the energy sphere, Turkmenistan, being committed to the strategy of diversification of energy flows, expresses readiness to continue co-operation with European partners on the implementation of the Trans-Caspian pipeline project."
Meredov stressed that the idea of its construction, initiated by Turkmenistan, was initially considered by the country "not just as an economically and commercially sound project, but as a key condition for ensuring global energy security and sustainability on the basis of equal consideration of the interests and benefits of energy producers, consumers and transporters".
Turkmenistan is a key player in the region's energy market and has the world's fourth largest proven natural gas reserves after Russia, Iran and Qatar. Current buyers of Turkmen gas are China and a number of CIS countries.
The relevance of the European route increased after the EU decided to get rid of its critical dependence on Gazprom after Russia launched a military operation against Ukraine in February 2022.
Turkmenistan, for its part, in 2015 built a 700km linear gas pipeline to the Caspian Sea coast starting in Galkynysh. Ashgabat is ready to supply Europe with up to 30-40bn cubic metres of gas annualy.
Previously it was reported that the President of the European Council Charles Michel proposed to organise a visit of Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov to Brussels (Belgium) by the end of the year to discuss prospects for cooperation.
Credits: Eziz Boyarov
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