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US presses Azerbaijan, Turkey on gas transit deal

03 June 2010 [10:52] - TODAY.AZ
A senior U.S. envoy urged Azerbaijan and Turkey on Wednesday to sign a long-awaited deal he said was crucial for retaining confidence in Western plans to reduce Europe's dependence on Russian gas.

Richard Morningstar, the U.S. Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy Issues, said the signing of a deal, two years in the making, would be essential to boost confidence in the European Union's ambitious Southern Corridor plan. The corridor would bypass Russia in bringing Caspian Sea gas through Turkey to Europe.

"We are encouraged by the recent progress in negotiations between Turkey and Azerbaijan," Morningstar said at a conference on Caspian Sea energy development in the Azerbaijani capital Baku.

"We are hopeful the two sides will reach an agreement sooner rather than later, so that confidence in the Southern Corridor is not undermined."

Energy-rich Azerbaijan is seen as a key potential supplier for the main component of the Southern Corridor plan to diversify gas supplies. The 3,300-kilometer Nabucco pipeline between Turkey and Austria was scheduled to be completed by 2014.

Other potential elements of the plan included possible Italy-Turkey-Greece and Trans-Adriatic pipelines.

The EU-backed pipeline would compete with Russia's South Stream pipeline project to meet gas demands in Europe, which already rely on Russia for a quarter of its gas supplies.

South Stream, which would channel Russian gas under the Black Sea to Bulgaria, is expected to be completed by the end of 2015.

The deal between Baku and Ankara is expected to cover the price of Turkish gas imports from Azerbaijan as well as the amount Turkey charges in transit fees for Azerbaijani gas to be delivered to Europe.


/Hurriyyet Daily News/
URL: http://www.today.az/news/regions/69151.html

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