The European Union's energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger Monday reiterated that the Nabucco and South Stream natural gas pipelines are not competing with each other, adding that the EU could politically support the latter Russian-backed project.
The European Union's energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger Monday
reiterated that the Nabucco and South Stream natural gas pipelines are not
competing with each other, adding that the EU could politically support the
latter Russian-backed project.
"Nabucco isn't a direct competitor of South Stream," Oettinger told
delegates at a conference in the Austrian embassy in
Berlin
.
He added that Nabucco is slated to transport gas from previously undeveloped
fields in the Caspian region to
Europe
. South
Stream on the other hand will transport Russian gas via a different route to
European consumers.
"Nabucco is new gas, South Stream is existing gas via a new route,"
Oettinger said.
Oettinger also said that the EU--which is backing the Nabucco project--could
also support the Gazprom-led South Stream project, provided it doesn't
undermine Nabucco.
"The EU won't block South Stream," Oettinger said, but added that the
pipeline shouldn't target gas from smaller countries in the Caspian region.
Nabucco is competing with two other pipelines--the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, or
TAP, and the Interconnector Turkey Italy Greece, or ITGI--for Caspian gas as
the EU seeks to reduce its dependence on Russian supplies.
"We expect that our Russian partners don't put pressure on smaller Caspian
countries," such as
Azerbaijan
,
Oettinger said.
The Nabucco pipeline is slated to transport gas from the Caspian and Middle
Eastern regions to central
Europe
through
Turkey
. The
consortium consists of
Austria
's OMV
AG (OMV.VI),
Germany
's RWE
AG (RWE.XE),
Turkey
's
Botas
,
Bulgaria
's
Bulgarian Energy Holding,
Romania
's
Transgaz and
Hungary
's MOL
Nyrt. (MOL.BU).
The South Stream venture, which will transport Russian gas to central and
southern Europe via the Black Sea, is owned 50:50 by Italy's ENI SpA (E) and
Gazprom.
France
's Electricite
de France SA (EDF.FR) is to take a 10% stake in the project later this year.
Wintershall AG, the oil and gas production unit of German chemicals giant BASF
SE (BAS.XE), last week said it intends to acquire a 15% stake in South Stream,
a move that the partners hope will increase the pipeline's chances of gaining
EU backing.
Oettinger said Monday that Wintershall's participation in South Stream was a
"logical step" as Gazprom hopes to reduce its dependence on
traditional transit countries like the
Ukraine
and
Belarus
.
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