Shell believes Caspian pipeline to benefit EU

"Today we see the start of a new scenario in Central Asian gas. This will have a positive impact on the gas supply situation in Kazakhstan, Russia, and I would hope Europe also", said Martin Ferstl, Managing Director of Shell Kazakhstan Development BV (a subsidiary of Shell).

"The decision on construction of the Caspian gas pipeline means, that the three presidents of the countries (Nursultan Nazarbaev, Vladimir Putin and Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov) confirmed a common position on the issue of transportation of their own gas to the world markets," Interfax quoted Ferstl as saying.

In regard to the agreement on construction of other gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China, Ferstl said: "Turkmenistan has huge gas reserves. And the country itself can transport the gas, both to the West via Russia and to the East - to China. Western Europe and China - are two enormous markets. Turkmenistan is located just in the centre of these two markets."

Speaking about the construction of Trans-Caspian gas pipeline Ferstl said: "In regard to the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline, I would like to state that this is both a strategically important project for Turkey and Europe as well as a challenging one. Its implementation will depend on the support of the five Caspian countries, their expert commissions, and a great number of international agreements will be required to make the project a reality."

"Such issues can't be solved quickly and take a large amount of expertise and compromise before they can be implemented," Ferstl added.

The presidents of Russian, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan reached an agreement in Turkmenbashi on May 12 to construct a Caspian gas pipeline.

The presidents instructed their governments to draw up and sign an agreement on cooperation for construction of the gas pipeline by September 1, 2007.

According to Russian Industry and Energy Minister Victor Khristenko, the first stage of the reconstruction of the Caspian gas pipeline in 2009-2010 could increase its throughput capacity to 10 billion cubic metres of gas a year.

After 2010, he thinks, the further increase in the gas pipeline's capacity accordingly with the exploration and development of new assets in Turkmenistan may reach 30 billion cubic metres a year.

According to Khristenko, at the second stage of the project, which could take five to seven years, the gas pipeline system's capacity could be increased by 20 billion cubic metres of gas more.

As known, the interested parties suggest that the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline have the following route: Aktau (Kazakhstan) - Turkmenbashi (Turkmenistan) - Baku (Azerbaijan) and then hook up with the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (Turkey) pipeline.

Kazakhstan earlier said it was looking into the possibility of participating in the construction of the Trans-Caspian pipeline. However, the officials believe that the project may not be implemented unless approved by all the Caspian states.

/New Europe/