ENERGY SUMMIT IN BATUMI ENDS IN FAILURE

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.01.2010 17:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Energy Summit in Batumi, supposed to be opened
by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on January 14, ended
in failure. None of the presidents invited arrived at the summit,
planned to cover Caspian carbohydrates transportation, bypassing
Russia. As a result, Georgian President did not arrive at the summit,
which was reorganized into an expert conference.

Beside Georgian President, Presidents of Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Poland,
Ukraine, Premiers of Energy Ministers of Kazakhstan, Turkmenia,
Uzbekistan and US representatives were expected at the summit,
Lenta.ru reported.

Upon summit completion, signing declarations on construction of
pipelines, bypassing Russia: Nabucco and White Stream was planned.

The Nabucco pipeline is a planned natural gas pipeline from Turkey to
Baumgarten an der March in Austria diversifying the current natural
gas suppliers and delivery routes for Europe. The pipeline attempts
to lessen European dependence on Russian energy. Moreover, as per
European Commission, Europe’s gas consumption is expected to increase
from 502 billion cm, in 2005, to 815 billion cm in 2030 which means
Russia alone would not be able to meet the demand. The project is
backed by several European Union states and the United States and is
seen as rival to the planned Russian South Stream pipeline.

White Stream (also known as the Georgia-Ukraine-EU gas pipeline) is
a proposed pipeline project to transport natural gas from the Caspian
region to Romania and Ukraine with further supplies to Central Europe.

At the first stage the initial capacity of pipeline will be 8 billion
cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per year. At this stage the pipeline
would be supplied from the Shah Deniz gas field from the Azerbaijan’s
Caspian offshore sector.

The project is promoted by a London-based GUEU – White Stream Pipeline
Company.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress