Russian, Kazakh, Turkmen Presidents agree on Caspian gas pipeline

Moscow, May 12 (UNI) Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov today agreed over a gas pipeline along the Caspian coast and decided to sign the deal by September 1.

The decision was taken at the tripartite summit between the three leaders in Asgabat.

A joint declaration issued after the tripartite summit said the pipeline will run from Turkmenistan along the Caspian coast of Kazakhstan and on to Russia, the sole re-exporter of the Turkmen gas.

The pipeline, will be a '' rival project'' to a US-sponsored Trans-Caspian pipeline across the Caspian Sea to carry Turkmen gas to southern Europe bypassing Russia.

After their summit meeting, Putin, Nazarbayev and Berdymukhammedov instructed their governments to start the construction of the pipeline from the second half of 2008.

Putin said the new project and the restoration of Soviet-era Central Asian pipelines leading to Russia, would make it possible to increase transportation by at least 12 billion cubic metres by 2012.

The CEO of Russian energy giant Gazprom, Alexei Miller said the two projects would help increase supplies of Turkmen gas to 80 billion cubic metres a year within the Russia-Turkmenistan contract until 2028.

In September, Russia and Turkmenistan agreed on terms of Turkmen gas supplies for 2007-2009 at a price of 100 dollars per 1,000 cubic metre and set the volume at 50 billion cubic metres a year.

Despite the agreement on the Caspian pipeline, Berdymekhammedov, however, said that the Trans-Caspian project bypassing Russia remained on the agenda, thereby rejecting the Russian Energy Minister's contrary assurances, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

"The whole world is looking for ways to diversify gas supplies," Berdymukhammedov said.

Putin's Central Asian tour of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan coincided with an energy summit in Poland May 11-13 aimed at reducing energy dependence on Russia.

Nazarbayev, a key participant, pulled out from the summit also being attended by Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Lithuania.

UNI