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Chinese firms support Trans-Caspian pipeline, claims Turkmenistan
PIPELINES & TRANSPORT
A group of Chinese and European compa- nies allegedly plans to realise the long-delayed Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, pro-Turkmen media have claimed.
Representatives from Germany’s Edison Technologies and MMEC Mannesmann, France’s Air Liquide Global E&C Solutions and China’s Sinopec held talks on August 13 with Turkmen Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov at the rst Caspian economic forum in the Turk- men tourist zone of Avaza, the Orient.tm news agency reported. During their meeting, the com- panies expressed their readiness to construct the subsea pipe.
The Trans-Caspian project has been dis- cussed for decades but has never moved beyond blueprints because of opposition from Iran and Russia. e pipeline would allow Turkmenistan to access the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), designed to pump gas from Azerbaijan across Georgia and Turkey and into Southeast Europe. Russia, already Europe’s largest gas supplier, and Iran, which has its own eyes on the market, want to avoid giving a competitor an opening.
“Having joined a consortium, we can now implement such a project as a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan along the bottom of the Caspian Sea,” Edison Technologies’ general director Kasapoglu Edison told Orient.tm. “ e European market is interested in it, and we con- sider it a great step to return to the promising Caspian region.”
According to Orient.tm, the project as discussed at the meeting would involve the construction of a 300-km pipeline, along with gas wells, gas treatment and compres- sor stations. Turkmen officials have previ- ously discussed building a 30bn cubic metre per year pipeline to Azerbaijan – matching the capacity of the completed East-West pipeline from Turkmenistan’s eastern gas heartland to the Caspian shore.
A landmark convention on the Caspian Sea’s status signed a year ago would allow Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to build the pipeline without the consent of other Caspian nations. Iran and Russia are yet to ratify the treaty, however.
The convention also states that cross-bor- der infrastructure needs to comply with agreed environmental standards, giving Iran and Rus- sia some room potentially to block the pipe- line’s construction. Comments at the forum by Behrouz Namdari, a representative at Iran’s national oil company (NOC), suggest Tehran intends to use this argument.
“ e construction of a gas pipeline from the east to the west of the Caspian Sea could cause severe damage to the region’s ecology... Iran is opposedtoitsconstruction,”hesaidinaspeech.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, also present at the forum, said he was “absolutely convinced that all major projects in the Caspian Sea should undergo a thorough and impartial environmental evaluation involving specialists from all Caspian countries.”™
South Korea-Japan dispute could hit kerosene trade
POLICY
SOUTH Korea and Japan’s ongoing trade dis- pute could lead Seoul to ban kerosene exports to its neighbour ahead of the winter heating season, driving up prices for Japanese buyers in the process.
Unnamed traders told Bloomberg that an export ban coupled with re nery outages or a severe winter could cause supply shortages and price spikes.
Japanese re ners met 87% of the country’s demand for kerosene in 2018, with the interna- tional market furnishing the rest, according to government data. South Korea supplied 79%
of Japan’s imports of kerosene, which is used in portable stoves and heaters.
“ e likely outcome of any potential ban of kerosene exports from South Korea to Japan will be a period of acute supply tightness,” Bloomberg quoted Fitch Solutions Peter Lee as saying. Wood Mackenzie’s director of Asia-Pa- ci c re ning, Sushant Gupta, said Japan would likely turn to China and Singapore for kero- sene and gasoline imports should Seoul ban shipments.
Japan’s biggest refiners had mixed views on the trade dispute and the likely impact on
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 33 21•August•2019