TURKISH MINISTER SAYS NABUCCO AGREEMENT MAY BE POSTPONED TO JULY
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
11.06.2009 17:42 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The signing of a key intergovernmental agreement on
the European Union’s Nabucco gas pipeline may be postponed to July,
Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Thursday.
Yildiz said it was not clear if the agreement would include a clause on
Turkey’s demand for discounted prices on 15 percent of the gas pumped
through the Nabucco pipeline. "What is important is the provision of
Turkey’s supply safety. We can provide this either from Nabucco or
other energy-producer countries," he was quoted by news agencies as
telling reporters in Ankara.
Yildiz’s remarks came a couple days after European Energy Commissioner
Andris Piebalgs said the agreement would be signed by early July
at the latest. At a meeting in Prague in May, the EU and Turkey had
said they wanted to wrap up talks on the Nabucco deal "as quickly as
possible (and) to sign it by the end of June 2009.", Hurriyet Daily
News reported.
The 3,300-kilometer Nabucco pipeline is due to bring gas from the
Caspian Sea to Austria via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary,
while bypassing Russia, in a bid to reduce Europe’s energy dependence
on Moscow.