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Azerbaijan Urges Iran, Iraq’s Partnership in Nabucco

22 March 2010 21:01 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Azerbaijan’s Energy Minister Natiq Aliyef asked for Iran and Iraq’s participation in the Nabucco gas pipeline project, APA reports quoting â€œFars News Agencyâ€.
In an interview published in UK newspaper Independent, the minister said the success of the Nabucco pipeline will be based on the participation of other gas-rich countries such as Iran and Iraq, as Azerbaijan could not produce all the required gas for the project.

"I don’t think construction will be in one or two years. Countries like Iraq, Iran and Turkmenistan need to join this project," he said.

The Nabucco gas pipeline project worth â‚¬7.9 billion envisages gas supply from the Caspian region to EU countries. Construction of the gas pipeline was scheduled for 2011. The first supplies will be launched in 2014. Maximal capacity of pipeline will hit 31 billion cubic meters per year.

The proposed 3,300-kilometer Nabucco pipeline aims to carry natural gas from Central Asia via Turkey and the Balkan states to Austria, bypassing Russia and Ukraine.

Participants of the project are Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE companies.

Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari told FNA in December 2009 that Iran’s participation in the project would be a must for the materialization of the project because the member states of the project will not be able to produce and supply the gas needed for the project.

Earlier in July, Managing Director of the National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) Seyed Reza Kassaeizadeh underlined that the Nabucco pipeline project would make no progress without Iran.

"It is obvious that Europe needs several gas supplying pipelinesâ€¦Iran is the main gas supplier in the region and has rich resources, high security and proper infrastructure. In other words, Nabucco pipeline would not be materialized and would remain at the level a plan without Iran," Kassaeizadeh told FNA.

Iran sits on 16 percent of the world’s natural gas reserves - second in the world only to Russia.