These energy transportation and development projects will also encourage these states to cooperate with each other in pursuit of mutual economic interests. As these linkages evolve, they will help bind the economies of these countries into broader European and global economic institutions. The fundamental objective of U.S. policy in the Caspian, therefore, is not simply to build oil and gas pipelines. Rather it is to use those pipelines, which must be commercially viable and environmentally sustainable, as tools for advancing the sovereignty and independence of the new independent states and for establishing a political and economic framework that will strengthen regional cooperation and stability and encourage reform for the next several decades. The strategic objectives I ve outlined, along with the political and economic framework that they underlie, explain why U.S. policy endorses five particular pipelines in the Caspian region.
Construction is scheduled to begin in the next few months.
TCP will compliment Baku-Ceyhan, enhance regional cooperation, provide alternative outlets to international markets and is vitally important to Turkmenistan s future. Faced with no reliable export route for its natural gas through Iran or Russia, Turkmenistan s economic problems will grow increasingly severe absent a trans-Caspian gas pipeline and economic reform. The TCP will provide Turkmenistan with its most viable option for reaching gas markets in Turkey and Europe, thereby creating a vitally important revenue stream and increasing regional linkages between Central Asia and the Caucasus. But beyond the benefits of gas revenues, TCP provides a vehicle for integrating Turkmenistan and the transit states into the international financial community, thereby encouraging an extended process of economic reform. TCP is now mowing ahead at a healthy pace.