Turkmenistan, being committed to the strategy of diversifying energy flows, expresses its readiness to continue cooperation with partners in the implementation of the Trans-Caspian pipeline project, according to the country's Foreign Ministry reports, Ednews reports.
Its strategic goal is to transport Turkmen gas to European markets via Azerbaijan and Türkiye. It is expected that the design capacity of the pipeline, 300 km long, may reach 30bcm of gas annualy.
Official Ashgabat has no doubts about the international legal validity of the project after the adoption in 2018 by five coastal states of the fundamental document regulating the key principles of policy in the Caspian - the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea.
Article 14 of that document, in particular, states:
“1. The parties may lay cables and pipelines along the bottom of the Caspian Sea.
3. Determination of the route for laying underwater cables and pipelines is carried out in agreement with the Party through the bottom sector of which the underwater cable or pipeline is to be laid”.
"Thus, today the construction of the Trans-Caspian pipeline is directly related to the delimitation of the seabed between Turkmenistan and the Republic of Azerbaijan."
The Foreign Ministry of Turkmenistan believes that this project " is an absolutely realistic project, justified from an economic point of view, capable of making a tangible contribution to ensuring energy security in Eurasia".