Azerbaijan supports the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project, but cannot be the initiator of its implementation, President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with local TV channels, TASS reports.
"As a country, we have always supported this project [of the Trans-Caspian pipeline], and I have publicly stated several times that yes, if we are approached, we are ready to provide our capabilities, existing infrastructure and resolve other necessary issues. But we cannot be the initiators of this project, as this is not our gas," the President of Azerbaijan said.
Aliyev stressed that he is against the politicization of this project. "For many years, the topic of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline has been politicized. I am against this, because I have always been a supporter of working on real projects," the Azerbaijani leader stressed. In his opinion, the project of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline can be economically viable.
"But this requires a feasibility study that will confirm this. The owner of the gas must sign contracts with consumers - at what price it will be sold, because the greater the distance, the more the costs increase. But still, we have always expressed political support for this project , and if there is an appeal related to him, we will do everything to help," Aliyev said.
Ashgabat and Baku have been considering the possibility of laying a gas pipeline along the bottom of the Caspian Sea from the coast of Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan for a long time. This idea has been supported by Turkey from the very beginning. President Erdogan has repeatedly called on Turkmenistan to build the Trans-Caspian pipeline.
The Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea stipulates that such projects should only be agreed between the countries through whose territorial waters the pipeline will pass. After the signing of the convention, a number of media reported that the agreement gave the green light to the implementation of the project, which provides for the supply of Turkmen gas to the European market in the amount of 30 billion cubic meters. m annually for at least 30 years.
So far, transit pipelines through the territory of Kazakhstan and Russia remain the only ways to supply Turkmen gas to the West.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
January 11, 2023