The signing of an agreement between Ashgabat and Baku on the Dostluk field in the Caspian removes the main political obstacle to the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline. Former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan and former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew Bryza said this in an interview with the Azeri news agency Report.

“Now that the Dostluk agreement has been signed, the main political obstacle to the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline has been removed. The next step is to make sure that such a project is commercially attractive to potential investors. Since the Dostluk field has not yet been developed, it is impossible to know what volumes of oil and natural gas may ultimately be produced there, ”Bryza said.

In his opinion, Dostluk is not the only possible source of gas supplies for the Trans-Caspian pipeline. Bryza believes that another option is the Turkmen gas field known as Block One, which is less than 90 km from Azerbaijan's main natural gas production infrastructure.

"For many years, I believed that gas from Block 1, given its geographical location, has a natural consumption market to the west of Turkmenistan, that is, in Azerbaijan and beyond," the former US ambassador emphasized.

In his view, the main challenge for Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan is to work with potential investors to identify a plan that makes commercial sense for exporting these potentially new reserves of Caspian natural gas to the West.

“Back during the Clinton administration, the United States also really wanted to include Turkmenistan in the Southern Corridor through the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline. As I mentioned earlier, the prospects for such a pipeline now look brighter than at any time in the past two decades thanks to the Dostluk agreement, Matthew Bryza concluded.

Correspondent "ZV"