Europe's Appetite For Turkmen Gas Boosts Trans-Caspian Pipeline Plans

Turkmenistan’s president is scheduled to travel to Turkey this week for talks expected to focus on natural gas transportation. For decades, thoughts about how to send Turkmen gas westward have centered around the need to build a trans-Caspian pipeline to Azerbaijan. Presumed resistance from Russia has long been the main perceived stumbling block. But that is only one part of the equation. For buyers in Europe to be able to import useful amounts of Turkmen gas, the capacity of the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline, or TANAP, which crosses the length…