US hails Turkey-Greece pipeline, wants EU to open up gas market

(EVROS) - The United States on Sunday welcomed the inauguration of a shared Greek-Turkish gas pipeline to Azerbaijan as a "critical new energy bridge" between East and West but said the European Union ought to open its energy market to more Central Asian states.

"The first link between Azerbaijan and gas suppliers in central Asia to European consumers...builds a critical new energy bridge between the East and the West," US Energy Secretary Samuel W Bodman told a ceremony at Ipsala, near the Greek-Turkish border on the Evros River.

But Bodman added: "New partners including Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan need to be brought into negotiations, and the EU will need, in my judgment, to open up its gas markets."

"This Turkey-Greece Inter-Connector (TGI) is a critical first step in a new energy supply chain...one that will only be realised by the continued cooperation of all the potential stakeholders," he said.

Washington is keen to see the EU break its dependence on Russian energy supplies which constitute a significant bargaining chip in the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The EU itself wants to diversify its supply after Russia cut off gas supplies to Ukraine in winter 2005 over a payment dispute, leading to disruptions in supplies to several European countries.

Around 80 percent of the gas shipped from Russia to western Europe transits through Ukraine, and Russia provides some 25 percent of the EU's oil and gas deliveries.

Ex-communist countries are also looking for ways to reduce Moscow's energy clout amid fears that Russia is increasingly exploiting its control of a large slice of Europe's oil and gas market to try to tame governments in its old stamping ground that fail to toe the Kremlin's line.

The new 300-kilometre (185 mile) Turkey-Greece interconnector pipeline inaugurated Sunday brings natural gas from Azerbaijan to Greece and will be extended to Italy and the rest of Western Europe.

The pipeline has an annual capacity of 11.5 billion cubic meters -- though some experts doubt that Azerbaijan can maintain this sort of supply at present.

The conduit runs underwater from Karacabey to the Greek-Turkish border and to the Greek town of Komotini, where it links up to Greece's central network of natural gas pipelines, while a 970-kilometre pipeline running through Azerbaijan and Georgia brings the gas to Turkey.