TURKEY SPOKE AGAINST GDF’S PARTICIPATION IN THE PROJECT "NABUCCO" BECAUSE OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.02.2008 GMT+04:00

If the founder countries do not manage to agree with all the countries
of the region, the projects "Nabucco" and "South Stream" will never
be realized.

The EU is starting a new geopolitical project called "Nabucco"
which according to the EU and the USA will decrease the dependence on
Russian gas and on Russia in general. The project itself is immense;
the general size is about 3.3 thousand km and the maximum carrying
capacity is assessed 31 milliard cubic meters (bcm) a year. Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Egypt and even Iraq are among the
possible gas purveyors for the future pipeline. It is presumed that
"Nabucco’s" route will be Turkey-Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria
and with some estimation it will cost minimum 4.6 milliard EUR.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In the consortium of Nabucco Pipeline International,
realizing the project, involve Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Romanian
Transgaz, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, and Turkish Botas. It is expected that
German energy concern RWE will join the project.

The cost of the construction of this project, which presumes laying
the pipeline in Austria from the region of the Caspian Sea through
the territory of Turkey by the year of 2011, will make 5 milliard EUR.

"The government of the European Union is a great support to the
project, but it will be extremely difficult to realize it," mentions
the representative of Oxford Institute of energy studies Jonathan
Stern.

Taking into consideration the big lack of gas, the analysts have fears
that it will be very difficult to attract the necessary investments
for this project.

The truth is that if the EU is so much interested in starting this
project, besides the governmental support it should also secure the
necessary investments.

"If for the governments of the EU member countries this project
is indeed that important, they should invest several milliard
dollars in it. But they have never made such steps before and I
doubt that they will in the future," added Stern. Azerbaijan has
already signed a contract with the founders of the project on the
supply of their gas. However, according to analysts this was not
the best idea. "Azerbaijan simply will not have the opportunity to
fill this pipeline," says the leading analyst of one of the energy
consulting companies. The USA has already given Azerbaijan $1.7
million to support the construction of the Trans-Caspian pipeline,
which connects Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. However, after the fight
between the countries for the access to this gas started, the project
was frozen. "Both Nabucco and South Stream are infrastructure projects,
which brings to clash between the countries in certain geopolitical
zone. They will never be realized, if the founder countries do not
manage to agree with all the countries of the region," says one of
the participants of the market, according to the "New Region". The
pipeline won’t function by the year of 2013, says the press release of
consortium of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International. The deadlines are
always put off; at first the launching was set for 2011, later was
put off for 2012. There are worries that there will not be enough
gas to fill pipeline; the cessation of the supply of the natural
gas from Central Asia caused big concern in the countries of the
EU says the Wall Street Journal. The countries do not have trust
in expediency of the pipeline, which will allow putting an end to
Europe’s dependence on Russia. The events of the previous month cast
doubt on the reliability of Turkmenistan as a purveyor and of Turkey
as a European energy railway.

The Russian monopolist "Gasprom" in cooperation with Italian concern
Eni, is planning a construction of one of its most ambitious projects;
the South Stream pipeline. Moscow strives to put it into operation by
2012. For this reason the Italian Eni is involved in this construction,
with which "Gasprom" has signed a memorandum about planning and
construction of a new gas pipeline. Gaz de France rejected its
intention to participate in the construction of Nabucco pipeline and
reviews the possibility of participation South Stream project. On
February 7 Turkey spoke against GDF’s participation in project
"Nabucco" out of some political motives. Ankara is not happy with the
law passed in France, against the denial of the Armenian Genocide of
1915 by the Ottoman Empire, as well as with the refusal of the French
President Nicola Sarkozy to see Turkey in the EU, says Reuters.