On 12 August the 5th summit of the heads of the Caspian states is scheduled to be held in Kazakhstan where the Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea is expected to be signed.
At the same time, according to the website Kommersant, the environment impact assessment protocol will be published shortly, pursuant to which all countries, which have access to the sea, will need to give consent for laying the gas pipeline along the seabed of the Caspian Sea.
Thus, Russia and Iran will be provided with the tools which will allow at least to delay the potential construction of the gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan, � the news outlet says.
Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan have previously claimed that only the consent of the countries along the seabed of which a pipeline will be installed is needed to build the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline.
Kommersant sources in the gas industry emphasize that the chances for the construction would have been small even without the protocol. They point out that Turkmenistan has contracted considerable volumes of gas exports to China and moreover, Turkmenistan did not fully fulfill the contract this winter. The fourth section of the gas pipeline Central Asia-China with a capacity 35 billion cubic meters, scheduled to be commissioned in 2020, is expected to be built, which will urge Turkmenistan to increase the production volumes. Within the timeframe of 10 years we do not expect the Turkmen gas to be supplied to Europe,� a source in the Russian government was quoted as saying who emphasized it is hard to make long-term predications.
It should be mentioned that the increase in the volume of gas supplies from Turkmenistan to China has been previously announced.
Source: Chronicles of Turkmenistan