From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Wed Sep 27 2000 - 09:57:41 EDT
Turkmen head optimistic on Transcaspian gas pipeline project
Text of report by the Turkmen news agency Turkmen State News Service on 25th
September
The Transcaspian pipeline project remains on the list of potential export
routes for Turkmen gas while Turkmenistan's interest in its implementation
will largely depend on the fulfillment by the international [PSG]
consortium of Turkmenistan's conditions, the Turkmen president [Saparmyrat
Niyazov] said in reply to journalists' questions on the Turkmen
government's attitude towards the decision taken by the consortium's
leader, the US PSG, to close its office in [the Turkmen capital] Ashgabat.
In February 1999, PSG, under an agreement signed for a one-year term, became
the leader of the Transcaspian gas pipeline project consortium. Later, the
consortium was joined by the British-Dutch Shell company which took over
50 per cent sponsorship of the project,as well as responsibility for
providing the pipeline with Turkmen raw gas. On the expiry of the agreed
term, PSG was refused an extension of the mandate as the consortium leader
as it has not met a number of basic requirements of the partnership, the
Turkmen president said.
He named among them: safeguarding guarantees, the preliminary financing of
the project, as well as the project's ecological safety. Having failed to
meet all these conditions, PSG, at the same time, demanded an extension of
the mandate as consortium leader. Such a situation is not acceptable for
Turkmenistan, Saparmyrat Turkmenbashy concluded.
As for the Turkmen president, this delay does not mean for Turkmenistan in
any case, the loss of the opportunity to implement the project, as some of
its proponents try to assure us. Saparmyrat Turkmenbashy expressed his firm
confidence in this, backed up by the fact that natural gas as a
currency-earning commodity will be in demand on global markets for a long
time yet. That is why Turkmenistan has plenty of alternative projects for
constructing the new gas pipelines. In this context the president recalled
that Turkmenistan, as before, holds a position which allows it to work
simultaneously on several versions of the project, the interest in which by
potential consumers of ecologically pure natural fuel does not lessen.
Source: Turkmen State News Service news agency, Ashgabat, in Russian 0839
gmt 25 Sep 00
BBC Mon CAU 260900/** jf/mn
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