Turkmen and Ukrainian Presidents Discuss Caspian Gas Pipeline Project

Meeting in the city of Turkmenbashi on the Caspian coast, Turkmen and Ukrainian presidents Saparmurat Niyazov and Leonid Kuchma discussed the project to build a new gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Russia and Ukraine.

The Ukrainian president was making a tour of Central Asian countries and on his way home made a stopover in this Turkmen city. The Turkmen president made yesterday a visit to Moscow, where major agreements on cooperation in the gas sphere were signed.

The planned gas pipeline, which has already been named the Caspian, is designed for an annual transportation to Russia and Ukraine of up to 30 billion cu m of gas. It is planned that the gas pipeline will be laid on the basis of the already existing low-capacity gas transportation system through which Turkmen gas is being supplied to Ukraine under the agreement signed between the two countries until the year 2006.

President Niyazov believes that gas from Turkmen gas fields on the shelf of the Caspian sea will be transported through the new gas pipeline first of all. It is expected that these gas fields will be developed by Russian companies; however, Ukraine has also been offered to take part in these projects.