European Commission President to discuss EU financial guarantees for Nabucco in Baku and Ashgabat

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will discuss the EU's financial guarantees for the Nabucco gas pipeline project with the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, and will also discuss support for this project during his visit to the two countries, said John Mitchell, expert on energy at the Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs.

"In addition, the important task of European Commission is an attempt to enlist support of the two countries' governments on the Nabucco project and determine Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan's capacity in this matter," Mitchell told Trend.

Barroso, at a press conference held on Jan.5, stated that he believed in the successful implementation of the Nabucco gas pipeline and plans to visit Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan next week.

Nabucco plans to transporting natural gas from the Caspian region to European countries bypassing Russia through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Austria.

The gas main channel, with a length of 3,300 kilometers, will be a continuation of the already-constructed Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline and is intended for transporting 20-30 billion cubic meters of gas annually. The project is estimated at 7.9 billion euro.

When creating this pipeline, EU authorities proceeded from the need to diversify energy resources supplies to the EU market.

According to Mitchell, since the Nabucco project remains an objective of the EU energy policy, Barroso will brief his hosts on the current status of support among the importing companies involved in Nabucco.

Mitchell said, however, that commercial agreements on energy supplies will be made by the various importing enterprises and he did not believe the European Commission had the authority to compel any European importer to conclude any agreement to buy gas from particular parties.

"I imagine that Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan have a higher priority for this visit than Iraq in the matter of gas supplies for Nabucco, because the first two countries are already gas exporters while Iraq does not have the capability to export gas to Europe," he said.

Also, according to him, the organization of the gas industry and gas policy in Iraq is not yet settled and the new government has still to decide its policy.


/Trend/