OREANDA-NEWS. July 16, 2008. As is known President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov put forward the initiative on construction of a new gas pipeline and reconstruction of the existing CAC-III pipeline at the Turkmen-Russian-Kazakh summit in the littoral town of Turkmenbashi last May. It was there that the leaders of the three countries declaring the willingness to expand co-operation in the strategic gas sector signed the Joint Declaration of the President of Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan on construction of the Caspian gas pipeline that is to be a reliable energy bridge between Asia and Europe.

The partners’ intention to collaborate in the important joint project is secured by the intergovernmental agreement signed in Moscow in December 2007 that setting forth the key project specifications and timeframe defines the joint liability of the participating countries greatly interested in increasing natural gas export, and therefore the capacity of the gas transportation system on the Caspian Sea coast.

Though, the intergovernmental agreement stipulates for supplying up to 10 billion cubic metres of natural gas each year to the Turkmen border, the project on reconstruction of the existing facilities and construction of a pipeline will allow increasing the total capacity of the existing gas routes up to 20 billion cubic metres a year. Thus, Turkmenistan takes an approach of long range project planning.

The meeting of the trilateral coordination committee composed of the senior officials of the Turkmengaz State Concern, the top managers of Russian Gazprom and the KazMunayGaz National Gas Company of Kazakhstan, which was held in Ashgabat last month, focused on the issues of promotion of the large-scale regional project. The committee members expressed great interest in accelerating the very prospective project standing as a crucial factor of developing region energy co-operation.

The State Agency for Hydrocarbon Resources Use and Management under President of Turkmenistan monitors the project activities. The Turkmengaz State Concern is to build a 200-km section of the pipeline in collaboration with the subdivisions of the Turkmennebitgazgurlushyk State Concern. As the project has several components – reconstruction of the existing the facilities, construction gas compressor stations and gas treatment units, establishment of an electrochemical safety system on the length the pipeline, etc the interested partners will be involved in the project activities.

Declaring the priority significance of the project Turkmenistan has performed a considerable amount of works without waiting for the Russian and the Kazakh partners to ratify the intergovernmental agreements. In particular, Turkmenistan has prepared the report on the study of the pipeline route to be thoroughly analyzed. The survey data will be incorporated in the tender documents, the documents on allocation of lands are under preparation. The tenders for the suppliers of pipes of the large diameter and required equipment on the basis of the conceptual analysis and preliminary engineering design will be announced.

The new gas pipeline to be put into operation in late March, 2010 will be laid on tee astern coast of the Caspian Sea. In the territory of Kazakhstan – in Beineu – CAC-III will be connected to the CAC-IV and in Aleksandrov Gai, nearby the Russian-Kazakh border will join the gas transportation system of the Russian Federation.

According to the State Agency for Hydrocarbon Resources Use and Management under President of Turkmenistan, Turkmen ‘blue fuel’ piped from the offshore deposits in the Caspian Sea and largest onshore fields will meet the international quality standards. The project on reconstruction of the CAC-III pipeline stipulates for partial replacement of pipes and reconstruction of the compressor stations on both tail ends – in Belek and on the border with Kazakhstan.

The practical significance of the future gas pipeline is difficult to overestimate. On the one hand, the Caspian gas pipeline will expand an access for the largest gas exporters – Turkmenistan, Russia and Kazakhstan to the energy-hungry European market and on the other hand, create powerful incentives to further develop oil and gas infrastructure of the Caspian region, whose abundant deposits attract the world big business. Thus, the large-scale project initiated by Turkmenistan will become another factor of mutually advantageous co-operation in the region entering a new stage of a long-term intergovernmental dialogue.