"Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project was a dream, now Nabucco is a dream"

Caspian Sea energy issues and US policy in the region has been discussed in Washington DC October 13 with the participation of top US officials and analysts.

Richard Morningstar, special envoy of the United States Secretary of State for Eurasian Energy participated in the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Discussion on "The Caspian’s Changing Role in Global Energy".

Mr. Morningstar pointed out that the US highly appreciated Azerbaijan and other countries’ energy policy in the region, including the efforts to diversify the supply of its energy resources to world markets, full development of the enormous hydrocarbon resources in the Caspian Sea.

He reminded that Washington has been a strong supporter of the Nabucco project: “For me, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project was a dream. Now Nabucco is a dream”, Mr. Morningstar said.

According to him, the main question right now is who except Azerbaijan will be supplying gas for the pipeline. He named Turkmenistan and Iraq as possible choices, saying that Iraq has lately emerged as a significant potential contributor to Nabucco, which looks to gas from outside the Caspian region as well to fill its planned capacity of 30 billion cubic meters of gas a year, following the discovery of vast gas reserves particularly in the Kurdish-run north.

Speaking about Turkmenistan, Mr.Morningstar has confirmed American business circles’ growing interest in the intensification of productive contacts with the Turkmen side in the oil and gas sector.

The top US official also pointed out that the US supports South Corridor, not some particular pipeline. He said he is sure the South Corridor will exist.

Mr. Morningstar also touched upon the process of settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He mentioned that Armenia is not part of any energy projects in the region amid a territorial dispute with neighboring Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. Washington considers that if somehow an agreement could finally be reached, that would be to benefit of everyone in the region.


/APA/