Moscow eyes tighter grip on energy routes - 14 May

Russia , Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have called for a new pipeline to be built along the coast of the Caspian Sea to carry additional Central Asian natural gas exports north into Russia in a move that would tighten Moscow's control over energy routes out of the region.

At a summit in Turkmenbashi, an oil town in Turkmenistan named after the country's late president, the leaders of the three former Soviet republics also agreed at the weekend to expand an existing gas pipeline toRussia, currently Central Asia's only major gas export outlet.

The accords mark a setback for the US and European Union, which had urged Central Asian republics to reduce their dependence on Russia by building pipelines across the Caspian Sea to carry oil and gas to Turkey and Europe.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, said the long- stalled project for a new pipeline going through Russia had been "given new impulse" by Gurmanguly Berdymukhammedov, Turkmenistan's new president. Mr Berdymukhammedov appeared to be keeping his options open, however, when he said the idea of a trans-Caspian gas project had not been abandoned.

However, the head of gas research at the Oxford Institute for Natural Gas Studies, Professor Jonathan Stern, said: "The trans-Caspian pipeline is unlikely to happen any time soon. Pipelines cost money and it is not clear who would finance it."

Talks on a trans-Caspian pipeline that started in the 1990s with Shell and other western companies collapsed under Saparmurat Niyazov, the late president who styled himself Turkmenbashi, father of the Turkmens.

Mr Putin said the pipeline would carry at least 20bn cubic metres of gas north by 2012 and would allow for an increase in energy supplies to Europe and world markets. "This is very positive and beneficial for all market participants," he said.

Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, which exports over a quarter of its gas production to Europe, is seeking extra Central Asian gas to offset a fall in production at its key fields.

Russia 's energy politics with Turkmenistan, the Central Asian republic with the biggest gas reserves, were fractious during the rule of Mr Niyazov, who also started gas supply talks with the Chinese.