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Turkmenistan President discussed Nabucco prospects

24 October 2008 14:59 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev â€“ APA-Economics. Nabucco, the gas pipeline project that hopes to bypass Russia and reduce European dependence energy supplies, received Thursday a n affirmative nod from Turkmenistan at a meeting of the President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov with the Austrian Ambassador-at-Large for Nabucco Maria Reich-Rohrwig and OMV Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer.
RIA Novosti reports that Reich-Rohrwig said Austria fully supports Turkmenistanâ€™s energy policy for finding ways to diversify the Turkmen energy export routes to the world market, as well as the Turkmenistan Presidentâ€™s initiative on the adoption of a UN resolution on the security of international pipelines.
Berdymuhamedov, in turn, reiterated the commitment to the principle of multiple-way exportation of Turkmen hydrocarbons abroad.
The Head of State noted that they are ready to consider any proposals by the partners.
Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer said that they had a constructive exchange of views on the Nabucco Project during the meeting.
â€œWe will deeply study all the proposals and options and get prepared until the upcoming visit of Turkmen President to Austria,â€ he added.
The pipeline, which will be one-third financed by the owners, and two-thirds by banks, is meant to diversify and lessen Europeâ€™s dependence on Russian gas from 2013.
The project requires two million tonnes of steel, 200,000 pipes and more than 30 compressor units.
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.
Named after the Babylonian king in the eponymous opera by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, the pipeline will take 31 billion cubic meters of gas each year from the Middle East to Europe from 2012 at the earliest. It is likely to deliver the first gas to Europe in 2013.