Russia isn't considering merging its South Stream gas pipeline project with the European Union-backed Nabucco scheme, Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko said Monday, refuting a proposal to do so made last week by Italy's Eni SpA (E)'s Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni.
Russia isn't considering merging its South Stream gas pipeline project
with the European Union-backed Nabucco scheme, Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko
said Monday, refuting a proposal to do so made last week by Italy's Eni SpA
(E)'s Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni.
"Our project is stronger, and we have the agreements and the gas,"
said Shmatko, the Interfax news agency reported. "We are waiting for the
time when the Nabucco project will be able to compete with us."
Last week, Scaroni said South Stream, a joint project between Eni and Russia's
OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS), and Nabucco are "complementary" and that they
should "merge the two pipelines for part of the route" to reduce
costs.
Some analysts view the two pipelines as rival projects as they both envision
shipping natural gas from Central Asian states like
Turkmenistan
and
Azerbaijan
to
consumers in
Southern Europe
.
South Stream is scheduled to transport gas from
Russia
and
Central
Asia
to
Europe
via the
Black
Sea
from 2015 and will cost 8.6 billion euros. The European Union-backed
Nabucco pipeline will cost an estimated EUR7.9 billion and aims to ship gas
from
Central Asia
into
Austria
through
Turkey
,
Romania
,
Bulgaria
and
Hungary
--bypassing
Russia
.
The E.U. is seeking to diversify its energy supplies away from Russian gas,
after shipments were halted on two occasions due to a pricing dispute with
Ukraine
, a
key transit state.
"Scaroni's comments look like the opening shots in an effort to shift the
focus towards the commercial rather than the political," said UralSib's
Chris Weafer.
The inflow of alternative energy sources and lower demand for gas in
Europe
amid
an economic slowdown has weakened the commercial case to build both pipelines,
making a stronger case for joining the projects, said Weafer.
"But, both systems also have strong--if not stubborn--political
backing," Weafer added.
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