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Turkey sends letter to European countries involved in Nabucco project

13 April 2009 09:44 (UTC +04:00)

â€œWe have sent a letter to EU countries which are part of the Nabucco project and await their answers. We hope get deals signed by June if they send the answers by the end of April,â€ the minister told reporters in Ankara.

The EU currently relies heavily on Russian natural gas carried through Ukrainian pipelines. Some 80 percent of Europeâ€™s gas supply travels via Ukraine.
Named after the Babylonian king in the eponymous opera by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, the pipeline is planned to be an alternative route to transport gas from Turkey to Austria through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.

It is also an alternative source to the Russian supply. The pipeline would carry gas from mainly Azerbaijanâ€™s Shah Deniz fields, as well as Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Iran. Construction of the 3,300-km pipeline is scheduled to start in 2011 and first deliveries are expected in 2014. The project is expected to cost around 7.9 billion euros.

The pipeline consortium - Nabucco Gas Pipeline International Ltd. is equally owned (16.67% each) by Austriaâ€™s OMV, Hungaryâ€™s MOL, Turkeyâ€™s Botas, Bulgariaâ€™s Bulgargaz and Romaniaâ€™s Transgaz and Germanyâ€™s RWE.