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CEO sees Nabucco construction start in next year

13 March 2009 08:51 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov â€“ APA-Economics. Construction of the Nabucco Gas Pipeline will commence in early 2010, said the projectâ€™s CEO Reinhard Mitschek in Turkey on Thursday.
According to him, the parties will sign an intergovernmental agreement on the project in a few months, starting consultations on the source of funding.
In his words, Europe and Turkey are becoming increasingly dependent on foreign sources of energy as consumption increases. He called the Nabucco project a crucial one as a backbone of the market.
"We expect the first gas flow under the Nabucco project to take place in 2014," he was quoted in Turkish media as saying.

He didnâ€™t rule out the probability of Russiaâ€™s involvement in the project, saying no oneâ€™s proposal to offer its gas for the project would be rejected.

Matthew J. Bryza, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, didnâ€™t cross out Russiaâ€™s participation either, saying Russian companies can participate on the basis of equal commercial terms.

To curb its reliance on Russian gas, the EU is backing the 3,300 kilometre (2,050 miles) Nabucco pipeline from central Asia to Austria, though analysts say the project has so far secured only a fifth of the gas needed to break even.
Shoring up the reliability of European Union energy supplies has topped the bloc’s agenda since a row between Moscow and Ukraine in January halted Russian gas flows to eastern Europe in the depths of winter.
The EU’s 27 leaders will meet in Brussels on March 19 to find ways of tackling the economic crisis and the bloc’s fragmented energy strategy, Reuters reported.
The project has been plagued by delays over investment decisions, changes in EU law, disputes between consortium members and the questions on the source of supplies.

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.