Russia's chief envoy for the Caspian Sea said Wednesday that two high-profile projects to export oil and gas from the region to world markets, bypassing Russia, were politically motivated and had no commercial basis.
Viktor Kalyuzhny, Russia's deputy foreign minister, directed stinging criticism at the US-backed East-West energy corridor, which comprises the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, and the South Caucasus natural gas pipeline (SCP).
"In the East-West project, politics is foremost and the economic side is taking second place," said Kalyuzhny, who is also a special presidential representative on Caspian affairs.
"We have never disputed the rights of states to independently determine their routes of export and transit," Kalyuzhny said. "But we do not intend to ignore our right to analyse how economic they are".
Speaking at an oil and gas conference in Azerbaijan's capital, the Russian diplomat added that the Western consortium behind the gas pipeline had "put the cart before the horse" by trying to sell more gas than it could produce.
Russia is a long-standing critic of both pipelines. It favours exporting Caspian oil and gas across its territory - which would give it political control over the Caspian's reserves and net Russia hefty transit fees.
However, Azerbaijan's government, and Western companies extracting oil and gas in Azerbaijan's sector of the Caspian Sea, have chosen an export route which passes south of Russia, through Georgia and Turkey.
They have been backed by Washington, which is keen to see new oil supplies which are not politically dependent on Moscow.
A leading shareholder in both the BTC and SCP projects dismissed Kalyuzhny's criticisms Wednesday.
Georg Gundersen, head of Azerbaijan operations for Norwegian oil company Statoil, said he and his partners were confident that the projects were commercially viable.
"Mr Kalyuzhny has very often... had strong statements about other parties' projects, so it is quite clear his statements are based on third party assessments. He is an outsider," Gundersen said.
Construction on the BTC pipeline is currently under way. The first oil is due to be lifted onto tankers at the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in the second half of 2005.
The SCP route is due to start shipping gas to Turkey's internal market in the third quarter of 2006. Some construction work on that pipeline is already underway.
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