World's Energy

26 May 2008 - Upstream OnLine - The European Union and Turkmenistan signed a deal today to encourage increased EU investment in Turkmen oil, gas and renewable energy. "Turkmenistan can be an attractive destination for EU investments for the development of new gas and oilfields, and at the same time the EU offers an attractive consumer market for Turkmen energy products," Reuters quoted EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs as saying. The memorandum of understanding follows similar agreements with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine as the EU seeks to reduce its heavy energy dependence on Russia, which provides a quarter of its gas needs. The EU has been particularly keen to convince Turkmenistan to join the long-stalled Nabucco gas pipeline project designed to link Caspian gas with European markets. The European Commission said last month it had secured a guarantee of 10 billion cubic metres per year of natural gas from Turkmenistan from 2009 as part of the drive to ensure sufficient supplies to make Nabucco commercially viable. The pipeline is seen as a rival to the Kremlin-backed South Stream project due eventually to take 30 Bcm of Russian gas per annum to southern Europe.