Caspian: Plenty of pipelines,but where is the gas?

Governments and oil companies continue to produce proposals for pipelines to export gas from the Caspian to Western Europe. Large volumes are forecast to begin arriving early in the next decade, but there are correspondingly few indications where the gas is going to come from. Production plans by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are modest in comparison with some of the outside export forecasts for these countries. There is also mounting competition for Europe's gas from the countries' own markets and from an energy-hungry China.