Azerbaijan, Georgia Back Caspian-Europe Gas Pipeline

During a visit to Azerbaijan on February 21-22 Russian President Vladimir Putin will apparently discuss with his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev a proposal voiced by Baku regarding the possible transit of Central Asian energy resources to Europe via the Caspian Sea and Azerbaijan which will bypass Russia, the Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported on February 21.

“Discussion of this new transit policy of Azerbaijan will hardly be an easy one… Until recently, the existence of this plan has never been mentioned. It seems that the idea emerged after the recent gas war between Russia and Ukraine, when the European states started to find alternative routes for gas import,” the Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes.

The paper also quotes Azerbaijani Industry and Energy Minister Natik Aliyev as saying that transit of hydrocarbons from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan via Azerbaijan “is extremely profitable for us.”

“There will be no technical problems in implementing the trans-Caspian gas pipeline project… Only the political will is needed,” Natik Aliyev said.

Georgia is also backing this plan. Georgian State Minister for Economic Regform Kakha Bendukidze told the Georgian daily 24 Saati (24 Hours) in early February that the Georgian delegation at the Davos Economic Forum in January lobbied for the construction of a new gas pipeline that would connect Europe to the Caspian hydrocarbon reserves, bypassing Russia.

According to Bendukidze, the pipeline would go through Ukraine at an estimated cost of around 7 billion USD. This cost was prohibitive while the gas prices in the Ukraine remained very low, but currently the pricing seems “very comfortable” for investors, according to Bendukidze.