EU to Help Turkmenistan Join Nabucco

The European push for Turkmen gas continued this week with an official visit by Pierre Morel, the European Union Special Representative for Central Asia, to Ashgabat.

Ostensibly in the country to attend a water forum, Morel told President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov on December 3 that the European Union would soon be taking "concrete steps" to help Turkmenistan commit to the Nabucco pipeline.

Last week, the presidents of Turkey, Azerbijan and Turkenistan met in Turkmenbashi, a Caspian seaport, to negotiate their positions on the multi-billion-dollar Nabucco project. Morel praised the meeting for paving the way to a new level of useful regional cooperation.

The EU is heavily reliant on gas and oil imports from Russia and is keen to diversify its energy sources. The 3,300-kilometer-long Nabucco pipeline, with a $10.3 billion construction price tag, is expected to pump 31 billion cubic meters of gas directly to Europe by 2020.

Turkmenistan's gas reserves are estimated to top more than 20 trillion cubic meters.