by ROBERT M. CUTLER
Much attention is currently focused on the attempts to agree terms for building a Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline (TCGP) underneath the Caspian Sea from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan, allowing natural gas from Turkmenistan to find a route to Europe. The European Commission (EC) was recently authorized by the EU to participate in working out the terms of the project.
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While personal antagonism between Turkmenistan’s president Saparmurad Niyazov and Azerbaijan’s president Heydar Aliev did not augur well for the project, two specific developments contributed most to its failure. The first was Russia persuading Turkey to agree to build the ‘Blue Stream’ pipeline underneath the Black Sea, linking the two countries. This subtracted some Turkish demand for gas from the TCGP and in that way contributed to the latter’s failure to get off the drawing board.
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