Turkmenistan ready to supply up to 40 bcm of gas to Europe

ASHGABAT. November 19. KAZINFORM Turkmenistan is building an infrastructure that would enable it to supply up to 40 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe, Deputy Prime Minister Baimurad Khodzhamukhamedov said Friday; Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.

"There is no need for European countries to worry. We are building an infrastructure designed for 40 bcm of gas," Khodzhamukhamedov, in charge of the Central Asian country's fuel and energy sector, said at an oil and gas conference.

Turkmenistan, holding the world's fourth-largest gas reserves, is looking to diversify exports from its traditional destination of Russia and may become one of the key gas suppliers to the EU-supported Nabucco project.

The Nabucco project, supposed to pump gas from the Caspian region to European countries via Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Austria, is a key element of the western strategy to cut Europe's dependence on Russian energy supplies.

The $11-billion pipeline is expected to have an annual capacity of 31 billion cubic meters of gas, or no more than 5% of Europe's gas consumption in 2020; Kazinform cites RIA Novosti.

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