Friday, 25 September 2009
The Nabucco pipeline project will be promising if it pumps Iranian natural gas, former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told a Eurasian energy forum underway in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana.
The Western-backed Nabucco project, estimated at 7.9 billion euros ($11.5 billion), is designed to pump Caspian Basin gas to Austria and Germany via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, bypassing Russia.
"For Nabucco to be well positioned, it should be filled with gas from Iran," Gerhard Schroeder told the Fourth Eurasian Energy Forum KazEnergy 2009.
"I favor the implementation of the Nabucco pipeline because we need extra gas imports to Europe, but there is one thing we have to remember - we have enough natural gas to fill the Nord and South Stream project, but not for Nabucco," said the German official, who now sits on the board of the operator of the Russian-led Nord Stream gas pipeline project.
The 1,220 km (758 mile)-long Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea will eventually pump 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Western Europe, bypassing traditional transit nations. It is scheduled to go on stream in 2010.
Europe has expressed concern about its reliance on Russia, which meets a quarter of its gas needs. Calls for diversified supplies intensified following a bitter price dispute between Moscow and Kiev in early 2009, when Russia cut off gas to Ukraine, affecting consumers across Europe. Russia supplies about 80% of its Europe-bound gas via Ukraine.
Schroeder reiterated that neither Nord Stream nor South Stream, another natural gas pipeline planned by Russia, which will deliver gas to Europe under the Black Sea, were rivals to Nabucco.
Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Iraq are among the potential gas suppliers for Nabucco. The United States has been opposing Iran's involvement in the project while supporting the idea of Iraqi gas supplies to Europe.
Schroeder urged the European Union to overcome political opposition to Iran, already under international sanctions over its nuclear program, as a gas supplier.
"It [the EU] will need strength to settle political differences on the issue of sanctions against Iran and energy supplies from the country," Schroeder said.
