Pipeliners

1/22/09 - Eurasianet - The European Union is to expand relations with Turkmenistan by opening a diplomatic mission in Ashgabat, a source in the Turkmen government has told Trend.az. According to the Azeri news agency, the aim is to "extend mutually beneficial cooperation" between energy rich Turkmenistan and Brussels. "Hydrocarbon potential in combination with European investments and modern technologies will ensure mutually beneficial partnership," the news agency quoted the source as saying, adding that the Turkmen government viewed "the European trend as the most important aspect of foreign political and foreign economic strategy." According to an earlier statement from the Turkmen Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a permanent EU outpost would be opened "in the future." The EU is hoping to secure Turkmen gas exports and have them pumped directly through the proposed trans-Caspian/Nabucco pipeline network. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Turkmen gas already reaches Europe, but only after it has been sold to Russia's Gazprom and piped through Ukrainian infrastructure. Turkmenistan is currently locked into a 25-year contract with Gazprom signed in 2003. Initially Gazprom paid $44 per thousand cubic meters (tcm) of Turkmen gas. According to RosBusinessConsulting, the export price for the first quarter of 2009 has reached $301/tcm.