President of Azerbaijan: "Azerbaijan will need Nabucco in the future"

"Today the volumes of our gas extraction are covered by the gas pipelines. Along with it we have big plans for raising gas extraction and in the future w will need more routes and Nabucco is among them", said Aliyev in his interview to US Wall Street Jornal, according to Interfax- Azerbaijan.

"As is known, we have heard about Nabucco long before, but frankly speaking, we do not see any practical steps in this direction. Now it is becoming clear that the project is important for Europeans", noted the President of Azerbaijan, stressing importance of the Nabucco summit in Budapest.

"As for the project implementation, a great financial aid from any source must be provided. These could be banks, a centralized financial package. It would be uneasy for companies, involved in the Nabucco consortium, to collect large funds. The main provision is a strong financial support. Its absence may create obstacles in the project implementation", noted Ilham Aliyev.

He voiced satisfaction with Azerbaijan's success in creating modern infrastructure for transportation of its gas to the markets of other countries. The President said that today Azerbaijani gas is transported to Georgia and Turkey and then supplied to the European market via Turkey.

Aliyev also reminded that the August 2008 events around South Ossetia have created definite problems in transportation of Azerbaijani energy sources to Europe. "We were obliged to search other ways for oil transportation. Certainly, the more we have outlets to international market, the better for us. Yet currently the situation in Georgia has stabilized and there are no problems with transportation via this country. Moreover, as I have already mentioned there are other routes as well", said the president.

"Interfax-Azerbaijan"