By Prensa Latina
Moscow : The Russian government approved a cooperation agreement with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to build a gas pipe to supply hydrocarbons to Europe from Central Asia through Russia, government sources said on Tuesday.
The gas pipe, which will hug the coast of the Caspian Sea, has been approved by the cabinet of ministers, Cabinet Vice President Sergei Narishkin pointed out.
For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin asked the members of the executive to boost the project during Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s upcoming working visit.
Nazarbayev, Putin and Turkmenistan’s president, Gurbanguli Berdimuhammedov, agreed in May to execute the project, which stops western plans to carry gas from Turkmenistan, avoiding Russia, through the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.
US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs traveled to Ashgabat recently to boost the project, which is three or four times more expensive than carrying gas through Russia, where there is a system of gas pipes, according to publications from the Oil and Gas Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Russia.