United States Confident Turkmenistan Supports Trans Caspian Pipeline

Ashgabat, 27 June 2007 (nCa) --- The United States is confident that the Trans Caspian pipeline, a long dormant project that is supposed to pipe Turkmen natural gas through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey to Europe, has the backing of the Turkmen government.

“The president [Berdymuhammedov] stated publicly, very clearly, that Turkmenistan remains interested in Trans Caspian pipeline,” said Evan Feigenbaum, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, in a conversation Tuesday with nCa.

Underling the fact that the United States believes in diversity of resources and routes of energy, Feigenbaum said, “American policy on energy has been very clear for a very long time.”

“Monopoly tends to disadvantage producers,” he added.

Stepping back immediately into the rut that is called US foreign policy, Feigenbaum said, “The point is [that] what is good for the United States is good for the global energy supply and global energy security.”

"That has been the basis of our conversation with Turkmenistan and other energy producers in this part of the world,” he added to cap the point.