Turkmenistan has enough gas to supply Nabucco: president

President Gurbanguli Berdymuhammedov's remarks are a boost for Nabucco, a pipeline project backed by the United States and the European Union but whose commercial viability is threatened by rival routes proposed by Russia.

"I stress this: Turkmenistan has sufficient stocks of natural gas, even for participation in such a major project as the Nabucco pipeline," Berdymuhammedov said.

Nabucco would deliver gas from the Caspian Sea region via the Caucasus, bypassing Russia. It would decrease dependence on existing and planned Russian pipelines to Europe, which gets about one-quarter of the gas it needs from Russia.

Turkmenistan is the largest gas producer in the former Soviet Union after Russia, which has had a lock on most of the reclusive desert nation's gas exports since the 1991 Soviet collapse.

However, natural gas supplies from Turkmenistan to Russia have been suspended since a pipeline blast in April that Turkmenistan blames on the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom. The pipeline has been fixed, but deliveries have not resumed.

Berdymuhammedov also reiterated his commitment to diversifying routes for his country's energy exports, citing India and Pakistan as potential future markets.