REUTERS
Turkmenistan has launched a $2 billion project to build a new port on the Caspian Sea designed to boost the nation’s economic security.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took part in a ground-breaking ceremony in the western town of Turkmenbashi, where the new port will be built by Turkish construction firm Gap Insaat.
An 800-kilometer (500-mile) pipeline is under construction from Turkmenistan’s giant Galkynysh gas field, the world’s second-largest natural gas deposit, to Turkmenbashi, in an effort to reduce dependence on exports to Russia.
Turkmenistan holds the world’s fourth-largest gas reserves and possesses vast reserves of oil in the Caspian, estimated at 12 billion tons. Since independence from the former Soviet Union two decades ago, the Central Asian nation of 5.5 million has invested billions of dollars in industrial infrastructure.
“The new international seaport in Turkmenbashi will also influence the geopolitics, will be one of the main constituents of international cooperation in the transport sphere and have positive impact on general situation in the region and beyond it,” the Turkmen president said.
The new port will be used to export oil products, liquefied gas and cotton textiles. Imports already reach Turkmenistan via Russia’s Volga-Don Canal but Berdimuhamedow said the new port would make it quicker for European countries to export to markets in the Middle East.
A Turkmen government official said that four port terminals — including one for passenger ships — and a shipbuilding yard would be built within four years.