Kiev and Ashgabat have reached an agreement on deliveries of Turkmen gas to Ukraine, the website of the Ukrainian newspaper "Mirror of the Week" said on Saturday, with reference to the authorities.
"The problem is that Russia's gas transportation system is the only way in which Turkmen gas can get into our country today. But Russia does not want to tranfer gas to Ukraine through its territory: it's not in the interests of Moscow for Kiev to leap from the Russian "gas needle ". Moreover, by refusing to ratify the Energy Charter, Russia is not obliged to facilitate the transit of energy resources of third countries through its territory", the article says, RIA Novosti reports.
So Moscow's position on the transit of Turkmen gas makes Kiev's plans for delivery of Turkmen gas by land unrealistic, at least in the coming years.
"And yet, the current Ukrainian government hopes that Ukrainian-Turkmen gas cooperation will be resumed. After all, there is theTrans-Caspian pipeline project, which is actively lobbying the European Union and the United States. But there are risks that impede its realization", the newspaper said.
The article explains that the idea of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline is to connect Turkmenistan to the "Nabucco" project, which aims to reduce the energy dependency of the European Union on Russia, to run a 300-kilometer pipeline under the Caspian Sea, which would connect Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, and Turkmen gas will go further via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline to consumers in Central and Southern Europe.
Last week, a unified EU energy strategy approved the Commission's mandate to conduct negotiations with Ashgabat and Baku to conclude a legally binding contract on construction of the pipeline. In favorable circumstances, gas could be transported via the pipeline within four or five years.
According to the author, Kiev hopes that, in the case of the Trans-Caspian pipeline project, Ukraine would become a recipient of Turkmen gas. For this to happen an east-west pipeline was built in Turkmenistan, connecting the major gas reserves in the east to the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea. Next you need to install an offshoot of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline to Georgia's Black Sea coast, and build a plant to liquefied natural gas terminal for shipping, and a terminal on the Ukrainian Black Sea coast.
