Iran stresses opposition to Turkmen pipeline project
TEHRAN, March 10 (AFP) - Iran's oil ministry reiterated its opposition
Wednesday to Turkmenistan's plans for a natural gas pipeline under the
Caspian sea that would bypass the Islamic republic.
Iran is the "best and cheapest route," said Deputy Oil Minister
for Caspian affairs Ali Majedi before leaving for an international oil
and gas conference that began Wednesday in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabad.
"Iran, due to its border with Turkmenistan, will be proposed at
the gathering as the best route for transfer" of Turkmen gas to Turkey
and Europe he said, quoted by the official news agency IRNA.
He also said Turkmen plans to build any shipment routes that ignored
"legal" concerns "could not be acceptable."
Iran maintains that Turkmenistan's plan to construct a gas pipeline
under the Caspian to Azerbaijan and Georgia is invalid because the Caspian
rim states have not agreed on how the sea's resources are to be shared.
"This step by Turkmenistan is against the declared principles of
the countries bordering the Caspian Sea and the accord is unacceptable,"
foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said last month.
"Given the current legal status of the Caspian Sea ... any unilateral
measure by a state bordering it is considered invalid and unacceptable,"
he said.
The Caspian project was made possible after a US-financed feasibility
study showed the pipeline was more viable than other routes through Iran.
Washington is pushing hard for a pipeline that avoids Iran and Russia
and heavily lobbied Turkmenistan and its Caspian neighbours last year to
shore up support for the trans-Caspian route.
Turkmen Oil and Gas Minister Rejepbai Arazov said at the beginning
of the conference Wednesday that Ashgabad was on the verge of signing a
major agreement to sell natural gas to Turkey.
"We are very close to signing an agreement today or maybe tomorrow,"
he said.
Some 300 oil executives from more than 25 countries arrived in Turkmenistan
this week for the conference, drawn by the resource-rich Central Asian
republic's estimated 21.1 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and 13.5
billion tonnes of oil.
The oil and gas reserves of the Caspian are thought to be the third
largest in the world after those in the Gulf and Siberia.
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