Baku News

BAKU, January 27 (RIA Novosti) - The European Union is interested in consuming Caspian energy resources, including supplies from the littoral country of Azerbaijan, the EU's special representative for the South Caucasus said Friday. According to Heikki Talvitie, the EU's interest in the energy-rich region was based on the organization's economic policy, which seeks to diversify energy sources. Talvitie said Azerbaijan was attractive to the EU as a transit country for energy supplies from the Caspian region to Europe. Other littoral Caspian states include Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. The EU is looking for alternative energy suppliers after some European nations recently complained about shortfalls in gas supplies from Russia, which are delivered via Ukrainian territory. Russian natural gas giant Gazprom said it had maintained consistent supply levels and put the shortfalls down to Ukraine's gas tapping.