Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan will create a Gas Union

Alexey Belogoryev, Deputy Principal Director on Energy Studies of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to Vestnik Kavkaza on a possible agenda for a “triple gas union” between Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan Vladimir Putin and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev discussed the creation of a "tripartite gas union" together with Uzbekistan at a meeting in the Kremlin the day before, Ruslan Zheldibai, press secretary of the Kazakh head of state, said.

As Alexey Belogoryev noted in an interview with a Vestnik Kavkaza correspondent, most likely the Gas Union of the three countries will consist in restoring the full operation of the Central Asia-Center (CAC) gas pipeline system.

“In Soviet times, there were five lines of this system, but already in the 90s, after the global reduction in Turkmen gas supplies to Russia, they began to be used less and less. That is, we have a ready-made gas transmission infrastructure passing through the territory of Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which can be used 100%, this, apparently, is what we are talking about. This system can be used in both directions, both for the supply of Turkmen or Uzbek gas to Russia, and in the reverse mode, for supplies to Turkmenistan and further to the countries of Central and South Asia," he said.

"The CAC gas pipeline can become one of the sources of gas for the TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) gas pipeline. The new Afghan authorities are showing great interest and are actively negotiating with Turkmenistan and Pakistan so that this project will come to life again. Before the end of the year, they even planned start designing the Afghan part of TAPI, where there are still problems with ensuring the security of transportation through Afghanistan, and with relations between India and Pakistan, but in general the project cannot be called dead, it can be implemented in the coming years. And Russia, in the current conditions of the European market loss, is interested in finding a new stable market," Alexey Belogoryev noted.