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Ukraine Wants to Call New Gas Tune
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko presented a proposal for a new White Stream gas pipeline, to be an alternative to the Nabucco line, while in Brussels. White Stream would move 31 billion cu. m. of Central Asian gas across the Caspian and Black Seas and Ukraine to Europe, saving $2 billion.
The Nabucco pipeline will begin at the Caspian Sea and cross Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Black Sea, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria. That is a distance of 3300 km. Its construction will cost €5 billion and its capacity will be 31 billion cu. m. The EU is to pay most of the construction cost this year. The Austrian OMV, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Hunagrian MOL and Turkish Botas companies are taking part in the project. The Ukrainian proposal is to begin a pipeline with the same capacity at the Caspian Sea and route it through Georgia and the Crimea to Europe.
Observers are skeptical of Timoshenko's proposal. Yury Boiko, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Supreme Rada's Committee on the Heating and Fuel Complex, noted that the proposal had not been subject to serious evaluation. He also noted that Ukraine's gas transit record is not ideal in Europe. Boiko and others suggested that stability and independence are worth more to Europe than the money Timoshenko's proposal would save.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 30, 2008
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