Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said Tuesday that his country will definitely realize Nabucco Project, the Ihlas News Agency, or IHA, reported.
Speaking at a conference on oil and gas potential in Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan Guler also invited investors to oil and gas exploration in the Black Sea and renewable energy projects in Turkey.
Hosting the conference, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Natik Aliyev said Nabucco Project has a future and Azerbaijan hasn't quit the project. However, Aliyev also noted sole power of Azerbaijan won't be enough to turn Nabucco into reality.
Also attending the conference George W. Bush's Special Envoy for Euroasia Energy Affairs Boyden Gray said steps that will be taken by Turkey for security of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipelines, are important. Boyden said initially Turkey-Greece-Italy gas pipeline will become operational and than they will focus on Nabucco and Transhazar projects.
The Nabucco gas pipeline project seeks to link central Asia's gas fields with Europe. The U.S.- and European Union-backed pipeline, which is planned to run 3,300 kilometers from Turkey through the Balkan states to Austria, is expected to be completed by 2013.
Last week, the project's Chief Executive Reinhard Mitschek said Nabucco is on track despite the Russia-Georgia conflict. Mitschek also said a market survey had shown "huge demand" for the project.
Russian media recently reported that Moscow has reached an agreement with Baku to pull out Azerbaijan from the Nabucco Project.
In early 2008, the consortium revised up Nabucco's construction cost to EUR7.9 billion from a 2005 estimate of EUR4.6 billion.