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E.U. to Speed Up Nabucco
The European Commission has resolved to accelerate Nabucco project of gas pipeline, which will ship gas to some E.U. countries from the Caspian Sea. Five member states of the E.U. sealed an agreement, which shortens the term of construction and makes Azerbaijan a basic supplying country at the first stage instead of Iran.
On Monday, energy ministers of Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey and spokesmen of Nabucco Company Pipeline Study (NCPS) decided in Vienna to speed up the project. European Investment Bank (EIB) and International Energy Agency (IEA) will be attracted and the launch of the gas pipeline could happen in early 2010 instead of 2011.
Nabucco that Austrian OMV spearheaded in 2004 was first elaborated to deliver gas from Iran, so the progress in its construction predictably slowed down on nuclear clashes with that country. Moreover, Nabucco could compete with Gazprom’s Blue Stream, promting Russia’s gas monopoly and Hungarian MOL to seal a respective contract past week.
Regardless, MOL joined the talks on Nabucco Monday and the project is eyed by Gaz de France, which is not the consortium member yet.
The basic change advocated by project participants is shipping gas not from Iran but from Azerbaijan at the first stage, which budget is estimated at $5.8 billion.
The sources at NCPS say they intend to negotiate with BP and other parties involved in Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum project to annually redirect up to 10 bcm to Nabucco. But Nabucco has the annual project capacity of 31 bcm, which will hardly be attained without the gas of Iran.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 29, 2006
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