Gazprom chief executive Alexey Miller said it is unlikely the planned Nabucco pipeline project will be realized, telling journalists in Vienna that "we see no resources for [the Nabucco project] and no [gas] reserves for it either."
According to the Viennese daily Der Standard, Miller said while his comments "should not be seen as a threat to any particular project," he believes that the focus should be placed on "developing new gas transport capacities from Russia"-- which, Miller said, was already being addressed.
Der Standard reports that Heinz Hilbrecht, the European Commission's director for conventional energy reserves, said on Wednesday that Nabucco was one of the Commission's four priority projects in the energy sector.
Hilbrecht said that the Commission would be appointing a coordinator in the second half of 2007 to speed up the realization of these projects, according to Der Standard.
Austrian oil-and-gas company OMV AG plays a leading role in the consortium currently planning the Nabucco pipeline and recently confirmed its commitment to the project.
(AFX News, 24/05/2007)