The leaders of Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have agreed to build a new natural gas pipeline around the Caspian Sea – a move that will produce 10 billion cubic metres of gas per year by 2009-2010, Russia's energy minister says.
The deal was sealed at a summit of the three states in the Turkmen Caspian port of Turkmenbashi on Saturday.
In its first stage, the pipeline will deliver 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year by 2009-2010, Viktor Khristenko said. Including the infrastructure upgrade, deliveries to the Russian border will rise to 90bcm.
Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the Turkmen president, said plans for a rival US-backed trans-Caspian pipeline that bypasses Russia had "not been completely dropped".
Little chance
Khristenko said he believed there was now little chance of it going ahead.
He said: "Technological, legal and ecological risks are so big that it will be impossible to find an investor unless it is a political investor who does not care how much gas there is to pump through."
Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, said the deal meant "more supplies of energy resources to Europe and the world's markets".
Blow to West
The landmark deal to upgrade existing Soviet-era infrastructure, delivers a blow to US, European and Chinese hopes of siphoning the flow of Central Asian gas out of Russian hands.
The three states have issued joint declarations saying they would sign a treaty by September on building the new pipeline.
The trio will also work with Uzbekistan to improve existing Soviet-era Central Asia/Centre pipelines. The three former Soviet republics have sought to play down the diplomatic implications of the pipeline.