AlHijjah 21, 1432, Nov 17, 2011, SPA -- German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle was in Turkmenistan on Thursday for talks on energy supplies. The Central Asian republic's possible participation in the construction of a pipeline linking Caspian Sea natural gas producers with European markets was to be a main topic of discussions between Westerwelle and Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. After meetings with Berdymukhamedov and other Turkmenistan officials, Westerwelle was scheduled to take part in an oil and gas industry conference and then participate in a round table discussions on human rights in Turkmenistan, a German Foreign Ministry statement said. Turkmenistan owns the world's fourth-largest natural gas reserves and is considered one of Central Asia's fastest-growing economies. The planned Nabucco project would connect Azerbaijan's natural gas fields with European consumers by constructing a pipeline running from Turkey to Austria, to be completed by 2017. Estimates of the pipeline's cost have ranged from 10 to 15 billion dollars. Policy-makers in Ashgabat and Brussels have pushed for Turkmenistan to be connected to the proposed Nabucco network to increase European access to Central Asian gas reserves.
