Baku invites Ashgabat to cooperate in the Caspian Sea
June 02, 2018 | 20:31 |1589
The official opening of the Southern Gas Corridor on May 29 in Baku caused a big resonance in the world energy market. According to experts, this event is of great importance for one of the oldest and largest gas markets in the world – the European one. In this regard, politicians have various assumptions about what changes can occur in the world energy system in connection with the opening of the South Gas Corridor. Thus, Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said in an interview with the local journalists, that Azerbaijan is ready to cooperate with Turkmenistan on the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline construction project at the bottom of the Caspian Sea. According to the Azerbaijani minister, Turkmenistan is interested in the Southern Gas Corridor project, and Baku earlier stated its readiness to cooperate with Ashgabat on the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project. “We have both technical capabilities and political will. If Turkmenistan decides to take some steps in this direction, I think that we can cooperate in this field,” Shahbazov said. These words of the Azerbaijan's Energy Minister mean that Baku does not want to waste time, and right after the opening of the Southern Gas Corridor offers Ashgabat a partnership for the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline, which will allow the Turkmen side to join to the project of gas supplies to Europe. Thus, it confirms the pragmatism of Baku. The gas to be produced in the development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. At the same time, Baku understands that there will not be enough Azerbaijan gas to fill the pipeline to Europe. There is a Chinese proverb: “It’s hard to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if he’s not there.” Indeed, instead of spending, without absolute assurance of success, the time and money to search for and extract gas for the South Gas corridor, better to deal with your neighbor on the other side of the Caspian Sea. Any economist will tell you that it is cheaper to build a 300-kilometer pipeline at the bottom of the Caspian Sea than to provide annual natural gas supplies at a level of 30 billion cubic meters. At present, no gas supplier will be able to offer 30 and more billion cubic meters of commercial gas annually to the Southern Gas Corridor. Turkmenistan will be able to. This gas is waiting for its time on the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea. Waits when the Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea to be ratified in Astana this August, after which the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline will be possible. It remains to wait not so long. Let us have patience and wait.Nury AMANOV
