Turkmenistan Reacts to Ukrainian PM’s Gas Pipe Remarks

nCa News and Commentary

Ashgabat, 30 January 2008 (nCa) --- In a press release issued Wednesday, the government of Turkmenistan has expressed surprise and indignation at the remarks made by the prime minister of Ukraine in a press conference Tuesday in Brussels.

Ms. Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister of Ukraine, tried to convince the EU Tuesday in Brussels that ‘White Stream’, a competing project against Nabucco, should be sponsored for obtaining the gas deliveries from Turkmenistan.

The press release issued by the Turkmen government treats the Tymoshenko remarks in the backdrop of earlier such remarks by high officials of foreign countries.

It says, “In some mass media there have been stories about previously unknown pipelines.”

Narrowing the focus, the press release continues, “During the visit to Brussels, the prime minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, speaking about deliveries of gas to Europe, has declared the possibility of construction of a gas pipeline ‘White Stream’ from which the Turkmen gas will be delivered to the European Union countries through the Caspian and Black Seas.

“Earlier, the statements about transportation of natural gas from Turkmenistan to Europe through nonexistent routes were issued by high ranking officials of other countries. These kinds of official messages are incomprehensible for Turkmenistan.

“The foreign office of Turkmenistan would like to declare that according to international practice the formal notice for construction of an international pipeline should come from the energy producing countries after due consultation and negotiations between the interested parties,” the press release concludes.

nCa Commentary

It is possible to understand as to why Ms. Tymoshenko, who has been related to, and frequently in direct control of, the gas sector of Ukraine for more than a decade, would make such remarks. However, no stretch of logic can justify these kinds of statements.

Liddell Hart, one of the best historians of twentieth century, observed that statesmen (or, statespersons, if you insist) run the affairs of state under the influence of their personal likes and dislikes, their grudges and affections.

In order to make President Yushchenko irrelevant, Tymoshenko promised moon and some stars during her election campaign. She ended up redefining the Orange Revolution – it is still pretty but not viable any more.

During the election speeches Tymoshenko repeatedly said that she will eliminate the middleman and buy gas directly from Central Asia, without explaining the method of transportation over a distance of more than 2000 kilometers.

Now that she has explained her idea of transporting the CA gas, the whole thing looks like a hall of mirrors: One reality distorted into many shapes by unevenly polished mirrors.

Yuri Boyko, former Ukrainian minister for fuel and energy and currently a member of the parliament, pointed some of the pitfalls of White Stream. As quoted by UkraNews (Ukrainian News Agency), Boyko said Tuesday in Kiev that the instable transit policy of Ukraine and exceptionally high cost of the project – approximately US $ 10-15 billion – make it a nonstarter. He said that the White Stream would also damage the efforts made by the EU to promote Nabucco that envisages transportation of CA gas to Europe vis Caucasus, Turkey and Balkans.

Boyko, who has vast experience in energy negotiations with Central Asia, remarked that the White Stream is another example of impracticable projects of Tymoshenko government.

Apart from the merits or demerits of White Stream, there are some other points that rise from Tymoshenko statement in Brussels.

In a reverse scenario, if it was Germany that had the world’s third largest gas reserves and Turkmenistan was looking to buy gas, would she come to Ashgabat and make the same kind of offhand remarks about selling German gas to Turkmenistan without first consulting Germany?

Actually, the whole question of sovereignty comes into play.

Are all countries equal in their sovereignty?

Or, is it that bigger and more powerful countries are more sovereign than the smaller and weaker countries?

Another question that begs some kind of response is that by promoting White Stream, is Tymoshenko trying to unite or divide Europe?

Still another unavoidable question is: Is there an underlying assumption that the CA gas would always be available at less than half of the price of Russian gas?

Here is a news story about Tymoshenko remarks in Brussels

Ukraine Suggesting EU Joint Construction of White Stream Gas Pipeline

Ukraine suggests the European Union joint construction of White Stream main gas pipeline to deliver Central Asian gas via the Caspian Sea and Ukraine to Europe.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko disclosed this in a statement at a joint press conference with European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner in Brussels, Belgium.

Tymoshenko marked that currently, the European Union supports Nabucco gas transport project, but Ukraine suggests that the EU discuss possibility of implementation of joint White Stream project.

«We suggest the commission joint implementation of White Stream project, which would lie via the territory of Ukraine to Europe. It could be more effective. We would like the European Union and Ukraine to be partners in implementation of the project,» Tymoshenko said.

She said that during the talk with Ferrero-Waldner, she got the conformation of Ukraine-EU partnership in the issues of diversification of energy carriers’ delivery to Europe.

Tymoshenko also said that they agreed on creation of EU donor group, which would allow accumulation of funds for reformation of system of gas supply to Europe.

«Such donor conference will take place soon,» Tymoshenko said.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, on Monday, Tymoshenko left on two-day working visit for Belgium.

The EU calls energy security as one of the prior cooperation trends with Ukraine.

Ukrainian News Agency, 29 January 2008 (http://www.ukranews.com/eng/article/98349.html)

Here is some basic information about White Stream

White Stream (also known as the Georgia-Ukraine-EU gas pipeline) is a proposed pipeline project to transport natural gas from the Caspian region to Ukraine and further to Poland. The pipeline would branch off from the South Caucasus Pipeline near Tbilisi and run for approximately 100 kilometres (60 mi) via Georgia to Supsa at the Black Sea. From there a 650 kilometres (400 mi) long offshore section on the seabed of the Black Sea will continue to Crimea near Feodosia in Ukraine. The offshore section will be linked to Ukraine's transit system by 200 kilometres (120 mi) long onshore section. The alternative plan proposes to prolong the offshore pipeline to Romania.

At the first stage the initial capacity of pipeline will be 8 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas annually. At this stage the pipeline would be supplied from the Shah Deniz gas field from the Azerbaijan's Caspian offshore sector. Later it could be possible to connect GUEU with planned Trans-Caspian Gas Pipelines. In this case the second leg of pipeline will be laid at the seabed and the total capacity of pipeline will increase to 24-32 bcm of gas annually.

The diameter of Gergion section will be 42 inches (1,067 mm) and 24 inches (610 mm) for the offshore section. In Crimea most likely existing 20 inches (508 mm) diameter pipeline will be used.

The project is promoted by a New York-based consortium, led by Pipeline Systems Engineering (PSE) and Radon-Ishizumi consulting and engineering companies.

(Source: Wikipedia)