European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will visit
Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan where he will discuss Nabucco gas pipeline
project, the European top official said Wednesday.
"I will be travelling next week together with (Energy) Commissioner
(Guenther) Oettinger to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to push for the
Southern Corridor initiative," Barroso said.
"Certainly, our goal is to have the clear commitments of those
countries regarding the Southern Corridor and including, of course,
Nabucco," he said.
Barroso will visit Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on January 13-15.
The Nabucco project, supposed to pump gas from the Caspian region to
European countries via Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary,
Romania and Austria, is a key element of the western strategy to cut
Europe's dependence on Russian energy supplies.
The $11-billion pipeline is expected to have an annual capacity of 31
billion cubic meters of gas, or no more than 5% of Europe's gas
consumption in 2020.