Turkmenistan is willing to supply up to 40 billion cubic meters (bcm) to the Nabucco pipeline, First Deputy Prime Minister Baimurad Khodzhamukhamedov said today in Ashgabat, according to a report from the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
The deputy prime minister spoke at the Oil and Gas Turkmenistan 2010 conference, the 15th such annual meeting and exposition, attended by 400 people from more than 160 companies and governments, the State News Agency of Turkmenistan reported.
"There is no need for European countries to worry. We are building an infrastructure designed for 40 bcm of gas," Khodzhamukhamedov was quoted as saying, according to RIA Novosti. He said Turkmenistan is building the East-West pipeline across its territory now to hook up to lines supplying Nabucco.
The official Turkmen media has not yet covered this statement. President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov himself did not mention the offer to supply Nabucco in his own welcoming address to the international expo, although he did mention the pipeline to China and the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline and spoke of the more than $9 billion in investments made to tap the estimated 21 trillion cubic meters of gas in the fields of South Yolotan, implying that plenty of gas would be available for all prospective customers.
