We cannot say that the talks on the trans-Caspian gas pipeline are in progress between the sides, Vitalii Beglyarbekov, SOCAR Vice President for Investments and Marketing, told journalists in Baku last week.
He said that we need feasibility study and coordination of economic and legal issues before beginning construction of any pipeline.
“We have nothing of this kind with this project. We do not have any talks, we have only discussions and these are different angles of the problem. There is a clear line between the talks and discussions and the issue of the trans-Caspian gas pipeline is on the verge of discussions,” added SOCAR’s representative.
Beglyarbekov shares the concern of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who has recently said that some forces are trying to hinder implementation of the Azerbaijani projects in Europe.
“Artificial problems could arise on the way of implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor,” he believes.
“I think that President has made it clear: there could be all kind of obstacles on the way of implementation of such big projects as the Southern Gas Corridor. But right now I do not see any significant obstacles, which could affect implementation of this project. This is first of all applied to Italy, but we cannot say that there will be no problems tomorrow. The Greek government led by Tsipras supports the trans-Adriatic pipeline project (TAP). We also must realize that implementation of any large-scale project in any country is a long process, during which all branches of power, regional agencies and regular citizens, whose lands are used during the pipeline construction, interact,” explained SOCAR’s representative.
* On May 1, 2015 Ministers of Energy of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Turkmenistan and representative of the European Commission had talks in Ashgabad. At the meeting they have signed a joint Declaration.
