The Associated Press
February 15, 2008 Friday 6:44 PM GMT
EU official says Nabucco gas pipeline project is now ‘more of a
reality’
By SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writer
ANKARA Turkey
A top European Union official said Friday that Turkey was fully
committed to an EU and U.S.-backed project to build a natural gas
pipeline from the Caspian Sea region to Europe, and that the venture
was now closer to becoming a reality.
Jozias van Aarsten, EU special coordinator for the Nabucco gas
pipeline project, said however that he would hold further talks with
Turkish officials on a disagreement over a pricing mechanism for the
project.
Turkey has failed to agree on the pricing of the project and is also
opposed to French company Gaz de France joining the consortium that
will build the pipeline.
Turkey has been angered by France’s objections to the mainly Muslim
nation’s bid to join the EU and by French moves to make denying
Armenian genocide a crime. Turkey rejects the label genocide and
insists the mass killings of Armenians at the start of the last
century were the result of the chaos of war.
A delegation, led by a France’s trade minister, is scheduled to visit
Ankara next week to try among other things, to overcome Turkey’s
objections to Gaz de France, the state-run Anatolia news agency
reported.
Nabucco, which would carry natural gas from the Caspian region and
the Middle East to Central and Western Europe, is still in its
initial planning phases. It was devised as a means to diversify gas
supplies and reduce energy dependence on Russia.
The project aims to deliver 30 billion cubic meters of gas from
Central Asia and the Caspian region to Europe through a 3,300
kilometer (2,050-mile) pipeline from Turkey through Romania, Bulgaria
and Hungary to Austria.
Turkish officials have "stressed the importance of the Nabucco
pipeline and they stressed their allegiance of Turkey for this very
important project," van Aarsten told reporters at the end of two days
of discussions with Turkish officials, including Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan.
"After this visit, I can say that this project is more of a reality,"
he said.
Van Aarsten did not rule out the possibility of Gaz de France joining
the consortium at a later time and said he considered Nabucco as a
"stepping stone" toward Turkey’s EU membership.
The consortium is owned by Austria’s OMV, Hungary’s MOL, Turkey’s
Botas, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz and Romania’s Transgaz. RWE, one of
Germany’s biggest energy companies, joined the consortium earlier
this month.
Construction is scheduled for as early as this year, with operations
starting in 2012. Cost of the project is estimated to be 5 billion
euros (US$7 billion), van Aarsten said.
Questions remain as to whether the Nabucco project can find
sufficient gas supplies to make it worthwhile. In December, Russia
scored a major victory when it signed a deal with Turkmenistan and
Kazakhstan for those countries’ Caspian Sea gas supplies to flow
through Russia, draining the main potential source for Nabucco.
In another blow to Nabucco, Russia also cut deals with Bulgaria and
Serbia for the South Stream pipeline, which would carry Central Asian
gas to Europe.
Van Aarsten said however, he did not regard the South Stream pipeline
as an alternative to Nabucco but said it would help diversify
supplies.
"There is no competition," he said. "The more pipelines, the better."