Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev oversaw the signing on Thursday of an agreement to build a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Russia via Kazakhstan. Ministers from the three countries signed an agreement in the Kremlin "on cooperation in building the Caspian pipeline."
"The creation of this new energy artery allows us to ensure long-term, large-scale deliveries of gas to our partners and represents a new, serious contribution to strengthening the energy security of Europe," Putin said.
The planned pipeline is expected to come on line in 2010 and to have a capacity of 20 billion cubic metres annually, a level that could rise, Russian Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said earlier.
It will skirt around the northeast shore of the Caspian Sea from Turkmenistan to southern Russia. Russian television showed Putin and Nazarbayev in the Kremlin holding a three-way phone conversation with their Turkmen counterpart President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.
Russia needs the pipeline from Central Asia to help meet its commitments to European consumers. The European Union relies on Russia for about a quarter of its gas consumption. But while Russia boasts by far the largest gas reserves in the world, its investment in developing its own reserves has not kept pace with demand.
The pipeline deal with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan is also intended by Russia to ensure that Moscow keeps a lock on the vast gas reserves to be found in energy-rich Central Asia. Turkmenistan exports virtually all its gas via Russian territory but the current pipeline infrastructure is ageing, its route originally designed to supply other Soviet republics rather than Western countries.
Meanwhile other competing powers are also seeking access to Turkmenistan''s energy wealth. Work has begun on building another gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China. And the United States is leading Western efforts to persuade Turkmenistan to build a pipeline across the Caspian Sea direct to Western markets.