Azerbaijan Will Not Invest in Trans-Caspian Pipeline

Azerbaijan will not invest in the Trans-Caspian pipeline, its energy minister has said, nor does it see the possibility of the project being built any time soon.

Speaking to journalists yesterday, Azeri Minister for Energy Natig Aliyev said that should the pipeline be built, it is not Azerbaijan who will be involved.

"I don't think the Trans-Caspian pipeline will happen any time soon," Reuters news agency reports the minister as saying. "Who will construct a Trans-Caspian pipeline? Azerbaijan is not interested. It has to be Turkmenistan that builds the Trans-Caspian pipeline, or European companies."

Though discussions between Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and the EU remain ongoing for the Trans-Caspian pipeline project, the construction of the project has been frustrated and impeded by disputes and tension between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. 

If constructed, the Trans-Caspian pipeline could be another source for diversification of gas supply through Europe, a goal that the EU is keen to facilitate. If and when online, the pipeline is expected to carry 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas through Azerbaijan every year.

Despite the disputes between the two countries, particularly those around several oilfields claimed by both sides, Minister Aliyev said yesterday that territorial disputes would not be an issue for the Trans-Caspian pipeline. 

"If we agree with Turkmenistan about the construction of the Trans-Caspian pipeline, there is no problem with the status of the Caspian Sea," Reuters reports him as saying. "There is no link, no influence between the definition of the status of the Caspian Sea and the potential building of the Trans-Caspian pipeline. It would be an agreement between two states."