Hungary Spreads Gas Nets
Hungarian MOL urges to unite into New Europe Transmission System at least eight gas transmission companies of Central and South Europe and raise a loan at advantageous terms to construct Nabucco gas pipeline bypassing Russia. The European Commission has backed up the initiate and Gazprom envoys are in Budapest, attempting to clarify the situation. Should New Europe Transmission System be finally set up, Gazprom would have to discuss the South Stream’s construction not with some separate and mid-size states but with a powerful Balkan consortium.
MOL Natural Gas Transmission (NGT) has announced the intention to set up a unified gas transmission system, New Europe Transmission System (NETS), in Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Austria. The length of NETS could reach 27,000 kilometers, NGT said, specifying that the aim of consolidation is to increase capitalization and ensure more advantageous loans for executing the projects, including Nabucco.
The Nabucco project provides for constructing a gas pipeline from Middle Asia to Europe bypassing Russia. Gazprom didn’t comment on NGT’s idea, but by strange coincidence, Stanislav Tsygankov, who heads the foreign ties department at Gazprom, was in Budapest yesterday.
Gazprom once attempted to cooperate with MOL in the gas transmission. In 2006, the gas monopoly ordered to it to elaborate a feasibility study for the South Stream gas pipeline that would run from Russia through Turkey to the Balkan states and then to Austria and Italy. But Gazprom changed the initial terms in November. The pipeline will run bypassing Turkey, and South Stream Co established in tandem with Italian Eni will develop its feasibility study. Gazprom also refused to buy out German share in MOL assets that included NGT.
According to the analysts, NETS is the response of consumers to Gazprom’s intention to ring Europe by the North Stream and South Stream pipelines. No matter the actual route, the South Stream is bound to run through Bulgaria. But if NGT succeeds and creates NETS, Russia will face not a single transit state but a big consortium of several countries.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 06, 2007
|
