Gaz de France Prefers South Stream to Nabucco
The South Stream gas pipeline that is constructed by Gazprom and Eni has attracted a new supporter. Gaz de France has rejected Nabucco project from Middle Asia to Western Europe, eyeing South Stream instead. Both competing projects are forecasted to be put into operation in 2013, but Nabucco still lacks the filling resources.
Gaz de France (GdF) announced yesterday the refusal to participate in Nabucco. On Wednesday, German RWE joined that project, which also unites Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Romanian Transgaz, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz and Turkish Botas.
It has also emerged that Nabucco’s inauguration was put off from 2011 to 2013, i.e. the project lost the two-year advantage over South Stream, which will run from Russia to southern Europe.
What’s more, GdF voiced yesterday its complete support to South Stream and expressed the intention to go through the chances of its joining. Gazprom welcomed the news. No negotiations have been held on the issue yet, but the project will benefit from extra consumers of gas, a source with Gazprom specified.
South Stream is the project to construct a pipeline with the annual capacity of 30 billion cu meters. Gazprom and Italian Eni implement it pari passu under the respective agreement. The pipeline will run from Russia via the Black Sea to Bulgaria, and then to Serbia, Hungary and Austria or to Greece and Italy.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 08, 2008
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