PanARMENIAN.Net

Gaz de France won’t be involved in Nabucco project by
reason of Armenian Genocide issue
08.02.2008 13:40 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey opposes Gaz de Frances (GDF)
inclusion in the Nabucco gas pipeline project over
France’s positions on the Armenian Genocide and
Ankara’s European Union bid, a senior energy official
said.

His comments, reiterating Turkey’s previously stated
opposition, followed expressions of support from
Romania’s president and Hungarian firm MOL MOL.BU for
GDF’s involvement in the project that would bring
Caspian gas to Europe.

The five billion-euro ($7.4 billion) pipeline is
designed to pass via Turkey and the Balkans to Austria
and is a key plank of the European Union’s plans to
reduce its dependence on Russian gas imports. It is
planned for completion in 2012.

The Turkish official, who declined to be named, said
in normal conditions Turkey would be glad to accept
GDF as a partner given its experience and success in
the energy sector. "Turkey avoids using energy as a
political instrument, it has no such aim," he said.

Ankara has previously said it opposed Gaz de France’s
involvement in the project because of France’s
approval of a bill making it a crime to deny that
Armenians suffered a genocide at the hands of Ottoman
Turks in 1915-16.

Turkey is also upset about French President Nicolas
Sarkozy’s opposition to Ankara’s quest for EU
membership. Sarkozy says the EU cannot absorb Turkey,
a relatively poor Muslim country with 70 million
people, and says Brussels should instead negotiate a
"privileged partnership."

The Nabucco consortium is equally owned by oil and gas
companies in the transit countries – Austria’s OMV,
Hungary’s MOL, Romania’s Transgaz, Bulgaria’s
Bulgargaz and Turkey’s Botas.

The Nabucco consortium on Tuesday confirmed German
utility RWE will join the project.

The Turkish Energy Ministry official said six partners
was enough for the project but that a seventh partner,
from a gas-producing country, could join.

He said Turkey was in favor of Turkey’s Botas
constructing the pipelines as far as Ankara, from
where Turkey wants the Nabucco project to begin. It
could construct these pipelines in cooperation with
other companies, he said, Reuters reports.