Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The delivery of Turkmen gas to Europe has recently occupied the political agenda.

Following a dramatic diplomatic and political fallout with Russia, energy-hungry Europe is looking for alternatives, its mind set on bringing the Caspian Sea littoral countries into the European fold.

Turkmenistan, which is the world's fourth country for gas reserves, happens to be looking to diversify its gas export portfolio, eyeing up new markets.

The energy dossier was one of the main issues discussed at a recent meeting between Turkmen and UK officials.

The two countries discussed prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation in the energy sector in Ashgabat, read a statement from a Turkmen government said on April 3.

The energy issue was raised during a meeting with the British delegation, headed by the prime minister envoy on trade with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, MP Charles Hendry at the ministry of foreign affairs of Turkmenistan.

During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on cooperation in trade and economic sphere, according to the message.

“During the talks, special attention was paid to the issues of holding a next meeting in between the Turkmen-British trade and industry council,” said the message.

London sees Turkmenistan, which has large reserves of natural gas, as one of key players on the international energy market.

In turn, the Turkmen government, regarding the prospects of supplies of Turkmen natural gas to European markets, including the UK, said this corresponds to the country's plans to diversify the export of its energy carriers to world markets.

Energy-rich Turkmenistan possesses 0.6 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and 618.1 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves.

Despite Turkmenistan’s large natural gas reserves, its development has been limited due to insufficient pipeline infrastructures. The country has tried to mitigate that issue by creating a more business-friendly environment that allows foreign companies to take on joint-ventures with the state-run oil and natural gas companies.

British companies, such as Bristow Helicopters, British-American Tobacco, De La Rue, Augusta Westland, Hermes Datacom, and Shell actively operate in Turkmenistan.

There have been no official UKTI trade services in this market since April 2005 to help British

companies which wish to export or invest in Turkmenistan, except for lobbying in relation to UK companies' commercial interests by the head of mission. A British Business Group was established in 2010, as was a Turkmenistan-UK Trade and Industry Council, which held its first meeting in Ashgabat on 13 October 2010.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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