Turkey is stepping up talks with gas exporters Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Iran to put projects on stream in the face of Russian Gazprom’s expansion in the region, energy officials said yesterday.
Turkish and EU energy plans for the Nabucco pipeline, which would cross Turkey, were rattled last month after Gazprom announced a deal with Italian energy company Eni to construct a pipeline that would enter Bulgaria via the Black Sea.
“Turkey has made contacts with the Turkmen and they will be ending with some kind of result. Included is a framework within which we can carry Turkmen gas through Iran or bring to life the Trans-Caspian pipeline,” said a high-level energy official.
Both Iran and Azerbaijan want to be part of the project, said the energy official, however a new pipeline would be necessary if gas is channelled through the Azeri infrastructure and into Turkey along the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) pipeline.
(Reuters, 10/07/2007)