From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Tue Jan 18 2000 - 11:57:07 EST
Turkmen head meets Transcaspian consortium discusses gas pipeline
Excerpts from report by Turkmen television on 17th January
President Saparmyrat Turkmenbashy [Niyazov] of Turkmenistan received the
heads of the companies taking part in the Transcaspian gas pipeline project
today [17th January]. The president of a company-operator of the PSG,
[Edward] Smith, the vice-president of Shell, (?Vicer), of Bechtel,
(?Redman), General Electric Capital [Construction], (?Maxwell) and the
director of the Transcaspian project of the PSG company, (?Alvares) were
invited to Turkmenbashy palace [in the Turkmen capital Ashkhabad].
A wide exchange of opinions on the present day state of the project took
place during the meeting. Edward Smith, as head of the company and leader
of the consortium, presented a report to the Turkmen president on the work
of speeding up the project's legal registration, carried out after the
signing of the Istanbul declaration [on August 1999].
The vice-presidents of the member-companies of the Transcaspian gas
pipeline project consortium, reported on their contributions in developing
the main directions in implementing the project. Issues related to rapidly
implementing the work on the intergovernmental framework agreement on the
Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey gas pipeline were discussed during
the meeting. This document has to confirm the interest of the countries
through which the pipeline passes in the gas pipeline's construction and
their readiness to take on the relevant obligations. The framework
agreement will complete the legal registration of this large-scale regional
project and will create conditions for its practical implementation. The
draft agreement has become key at the negotiations of the working-groups of
the four participating states of a project which are to be held hold in
Ashkhabad on 18th-19th January. The main clauses in the document and which
is to be signed at the highest level at the end of March 2000.will be
discussed on the level of experts over the two-day period. Several rounds
of negotiations are to be held in the capitals of the participating states
until that time.
The president of Turkmenistan submitted to the members of the Transcaspian
[gas pipeline] consortium the Turkmen model of a draft agreement and
approved all the actions taken by the consortium of the Transcaspian gas
pipeline project in speeding up its implementation. Moreover, Saparmyrat
Turkmenbashy pointed out that gas delivery across the Caspian Sea to
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey will substantially complement the existing
export routes of Turkmen gas to Russia and Iran.
At the end of the meeting, the members of the consortium, assured the
Turkmen president that they will strain every effort to speed up the
project and meet all the planned schedules in order to complete the
Transcaspian gas pipeline's construction in 2002.
[passage omitted: Edward Smith in his interview calls the meeting successfu]
Source: Turkmen television, Ashkhabad, in Turkmen, 1400 gmt 17 Jan 00
BBC Mon CAU GAR/AA
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