Third time lucky for Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline?
Financial and institutional obstacles to the project appear at last to be clearing
The current effort—the third—to realise the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline (TCGP) has better prospects than the previous ones. In order to evaluate its chances of success, one must understand both its history and its unaccustomed financing structure. The first attempt to develop the TCGP foundered in the late 1990s, when Italian engineers developed new technology enabling Gazprom to lay an ultra-deep pipeline under the Black Sea for direct supplies to Turkey. Based on it, Russia proposed the Blue Stream pipeline to Turkey, two strings of 9bn m³/yr each. The subsequent take-or-pay agreement with Gazprom affected Turkey's previous agreement with Turkmenistan. Instead of taking the initially propos
Also in this section
9 January 2026
The Latin American producer’s crude prospects rely on a multi-pronged approach where even the relatively easy wins will take considerable time, effort and cost
9 January 2026
While many forecasters are reasserting the importance of oil and gas, petrostates should be under no illusion things are changing, and faster than they might think
8 January 2026
Indonesia and Malaysia are at the dawn of breathtaking digital capabilities. Their energy infrastructure must keep up with their ambitions
8 January 2026
The next five years will be critical for the North Sea, and it will be policy not geology that will decide the basin’s future
