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Qatar to join Nabucco project

20 August 2009 13:12 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Elmin Ibrahimov â€“ APA-Economics. Qatar and Turkey have started discussions to build a natural gas pipeline between the two countries, crossing the territories of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, BNE (www.businessneweurope.eu) reported.

The pipeline could then be linked to the Nabucco pipeline for transport of natural gas from Caspian and Middle East to Europe. Qatar provides 7.5bn cubic metres of natural gas to EU annually at present, ranking as the fourth largest supplier.

EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs expects Qatar to supply 30bn cubic metres of natural gas annually to the EU in the next few years. The 3,300-km Nabucco pipeline will have a transport capacity of 31bn cubic metres of natural gas per year and is expected to cover 5-10% of the European demand. Initially Azerbaijan will provide 8-12bn natural gas and Iraq would contribute with 15bn later on.

The latest investment estimates for Nabucco point to total costs of EUR 7.9bn instead of the initially projected EUR 5bn. First supplies are expected in 2014. The national natural gas suppliers of Austria , Bulgaria , Hungary , Romania , and Turkey as well as Germany ’s RWE hold equal stakes in Nabucco Gaspipeline International, the company set to run the project.