BISHKEK, December 9. /TASS/. Gas cooperation between Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan has good prospects, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters on Friday.
"This (gas cooperation - TASS) is good, big, very promising work, with good prospects for the future. We will work on it. This work has begun," the head of state said, stressing that such interaction requires systematic work at the expert level, calculations, financial alignment and participation of each country in investments.
According to him, Moscow, Astana and Tashkent are fully prepared for joint work and joint investments and solutions on gas cooperation "can definitely be found," and in the future it will be possible to talk about an energy alliance of the three countries.
The President drew attention to the fact that the growing economies of the EAEU countries, as well as the obligations of countries for export, will lead to an increase in the volume of energy consumption.
Putin also touched upon the peculiarities of the gas infrastructure of the three countries and noted that it requires development and large financial investments. In particular, Russia needs to create a more extensive gas network to supply gas to Central Asia. Its construction, according to the President, will cost 260 billion rubles ($4.1 bln). Besides tthat the gas pipeline between Kazakhstan and Russia, built back in the Soviet Union, requires repair and expansion, and a separate pipeline system will need to be built to transport gas from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan.
On November 28, at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that during the negotiations that had ended earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about the need to create a trilateral gas union involving Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained that at the first stage, it implies creating a coordination mechanism on Putin's initiative. Later it became known that it also implies cooperation on processing and supply of gas, in particular to new export destinations.