Page 8 - FSUOGM Week 49 2021

FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM

forced instead to periodically sell gas cheaply to "Any project that can end the sense of stasis,
Russia and Iran, which sell the gas on to Europe, if it is non-divisive and involves both Turkmen-
Turkey and even Azerbaijan, at a considerable istan and Azerbaijan, it could succeed," Luca
markup. Anceschi, an energy analyst and professor of
Previous attempts at developing pipelines Eurasian Studies at Glasgow University, told
across the Caspian have foundered for a number Eurasianet.
of reasons, one of the most significant of which Meanwhile, the window for ambitious
was the perennial failure of the five Caspian lit- new hydrocarbon projects could be closing, as
toral states to agree on the division and use of European consumers – the target market for a
the seabed. trans-Caspian pipeline – are trying to transition
That issue is now resolved thanks to the 2018 to energy alternatives.
Convention on the legal status of the Caspian "Turkmenistan is a perfect example of lost
Sea, which saw the five finally agree on how to opportunities – being cautious won't help them,
divide up the sea. and this could be their last chance," Anceschi
The most advanced of the failed pipeline pro- said
jects proposed in the late 1990s, partnered Shell Currently, at least, there is plenty of demand
– which held the rights to gas fields in Turk- for more gas which Turkmenistan could meet.
menistan at the time – with GE and Bechtel and "Azerbaijan needs more gas, Turkey needs
envisaged a huge pipeline carrying gas to Azer- more gas and with plenty of spare capacity
baijan, on to Turkey and then across Turkey to in the TANAP and TAP pipelines, there is the
Europe. European market which also needs more gas,"
That project, however, foundered after the Arif Akturk, a Turkish energy consultant and
discovery of Azerbaijan's huge Shah Deniz gas former head of gas purchasing at Turkey's state
field, after which Baku lost interest in transit- gas importer and transit pipeline operator Botas,
ing gas for its Caspian neighbour, a volte-face told Eurasianet.
which soured relations with Ashgabat for two The main losers, Akturk said, would be Rus-
decades. sia and Iran, who could potentially face losing
Relations between the two are now much both an easy source of cheap gas for themselves
improved, evidenced by the agreement earlier and also stronger competition for their exports.
this year to jointly develop the formerly disputed David O’Byrne is an Istanbul-based journal-
Dostluk oil and gas field. ist who covers energy.
The timing could thus be right to finally build This article originally appeared on Eurasi-
a pipeline, analysts say. anet here. ™

Gazprom reports Jan-Nov

export numbers

RUSSIA GAZPROM ramped up gas supplies to Europe its European sales in the first ten months of this
by 6.6% in the first 11 months of this year, the year were up 10.4%, highlighting the impact of
But November state-owned supplier reported on December 6, weak volumes in November.
shipments fell to a but deliveries during November were at a record The European gas market is extremely
record low. low. tight as a result of rebounding demand in
The company reported that it had shipped recent months and continued supply con-
171.5bn cubic metres (bcm) of gas in January straints, and this has kept wholesale prices at
through November to the so-called Far Abroad, hubs at above $1,000 per 1,000 cubic metres.
which typically refers to Europe and Turkey Gazprom has faced criticism for intention-
minus countries in the former Soviet Union. ally withholding supply to prop up prices and
Deliveries to Turkey were up by nearly 84%, earn more, although the company is fulfilling
Germany by 16.8%, Italy by 19.5%, Romania its contracts and has said it is sending as much
by 221.8%, Serbia by 85.8%, Bulgaria by 43.8%, gas as it can.
Poland by 7.5%, Greece by 12.2%, Slovenia by Gazprom Export once again reported on
53.9% and Finland by 9.1%. December 6 that it would not be offering any
However, the seemingly strong result also additional gas volumes on its electronic sales
masked the fact that Gazprom’s European sales platform. Its previous sessions on the platform
slumped in November to a new low for the year were in late October for delivery in the third
of 12.7 bcm, the company’s data shows. Indeed, quarter of 2022 and in 2023 ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 49 08•December•2021