In meetings this week between EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso and Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, both sides pledged cooperation to build a Trans Caspian Pipeline. This project, long on the drawing boards but still unfunded, would bring gas under the Caspian Sea from Turkmenistan (with the fourth largest gas reserves in the world) to Azerbaijan. It would provide the crucially needed volume to fill the proposed Nabucco pipeline.Berdymukhamedov pledged that partnership with Europe in the gas sphere was a priority. In return, Barroso said the European Union suppored his intention to build a pipeline. He said that Europe was ready to purchase gas from Turkmenistan, and that there was "political will" to build the pipeline.http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iXghI-2HeHbNy6V1V4s6iBXao4hA?docId=CNG.1013bcd54f88cdb52e0ba01db945fb52.e91 ITAR/TASS reported that Barroso called the construction of a pipeline at the bottom of the sea a necessity. http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15859572&PageNum=0
Supporters of the Nabucco pipeline should be pleased at the expression of political will. They now await the funding that should accompany it.
Dr. James J. Coyle is available to speak to your organization or at your event. Please contact him at jimcoyle@verizon.net.
