A US-backed plan to build a pipeline for Turkmen gas across the Caspian could be "dead in the water", according to many observers at an oil and gas conference in Baku, and may lead to a radical reconsideration of US policy in the region. Backers of the 2,000km, $2bn trans-Caspian gas pipeline project maintain that there is sill life in the project, which they hope will transport 16bn cubic metres a year of gas to Turkish markets by the end of 2002.