Reuters UK
Feb 15 2008

EU seeks future role for Gaz de France in Nabucco

Fri Feb 15, 2008 4:21pm GMT

ANKARA, Feb 15 (Reuters) – The European Union’s coordinator for the
proposed Nabucco natural gas pipeline through Turkey said Gaz de
France (GAZ.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), whose involvement Ankara
opposes, should not be excluded from the project in the future.

Jozias van Aartsen, in Ankara for talks with Turkish energy
officials, said the European Union was as eager as Turkey about the
Nabucco project, a major plank in the European Union’s policy to ease
dependence on Russian gas.

"In the future, we should not exclude this company from the project,"
van Aartsen said in reference to Gaz de France.

The Nabucco consortium confirmed earlier this month that German
utility company RWE (RWEG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) will join
project aimed at piping gas from the Caspian to Europe.

Austria’s OMV (OMVV.VI: Quote, Profile, Research), Hungary’s MOL
MOLB.BU, Turkey’s state-run Botas, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz and Romania’s
Transgaz are other stakeholders in the project.

Ankara opposes Gaz de France’s involvement in the project because of
the French National Assembly’s approval of a bill making it a crime
to deny that Armenians suffered a genocide at the hands of Ottoman
Turks during World War One.

Turkey is also upset about French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s
opposition to Ankara’s quest for EU membership.

Van Aartsen said involvement of Gaz de France was not the main issue
in his talks with the Turkish officials and he added that the issue
of pricing needed to be solved.

He said that the problem could be resolved within two weeks in talks
between the EU and Turkey and added that the Nabucco project was
estimated to cost $5 billion. (Reporting by Orhan Coskun, editing by
Anthony Barker)