Matthew Bryza: Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan deal on Dostlug field ‘major milestone’
The agreement reached today between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to work together on exploring and developing the Dostlug oil and gas field in the Caspian Sea is a major milestone, Matthew Bryza, former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan and former OSCE Minsk Group co-chair, told News.Az.
“With this agreement now, I think not only it is possible for the two countries to work together to develop the Dostlug field, but it should also clear the way for cooperation on natural gas production or at least transit from Turkmenistan across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan and beyond. That would be very important for Turkmenistan to give its outlets to reliable markets,” the former diplomat said.
Bryza stressed that new volumes of gas from Turkmenistan, especially from other fields of Turkmenistan in the Caspian Sea have a natural market in Azerbaijan to help develop Azerbaijan’s petrochemical industry, but also maybe in Turkey.
“Perhaps, these new volumes of natural gas could allow for expansion of Azerbaijan’s petrochemicals industry. In short, this is a very important agreement that paves way for a wide range of cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan,” he added.