Turkmenistan has promised to allocate 10bn cu. m. of gas per year to Europe, EU Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner has said in an interview with the Financial Times.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has welcomed European companies to take part in tenders for the development of new deposits, Ms Ferrero-Waldner said.

The volume of gas Turkmenistan promised to supply to the EU accounts for only 3% of the EU’s current annual imports. This is quite insignificant for the EU and is no alternative to Russian supplies. However, it is a long-term prospect for the EU and a small step towards bridging relations with Turkmenistan and easing its dependence on Russian gas.

Ms Ferrero-Waldner said that there were three options for transporting Turkmen gas: constructing a pipeline between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan across the Caspian Sea and link it to existing gas pipelines in Turkey; constructing a pipeline to Kazakhstan which would then be connected with a pipeline in Azerbaijan; the third option is to liquefy gas and transport it by tankers. Relations between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are still shaky, despite a certain rapprochement after the death of Turkmenistan’s former president, Saparmurat Niyazov, because of a dispute over hydrocarbon fields in the Caspian Sea.

The fight for Central Asia’s hydrocarbon reserves has intensified between the West and Russia after the latter has signed an agreement with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to pump Central Asian gas through the revived the Caspian pipeline which runs along the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea from Turkmenistan to Russia through Kazakhstan.