Brussels, 03/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - Günther Oettinger wants to speed up the launch of the construction phase of the gas pipeline which will bring gas from Central Asia to the EU from 2015, via Turkey and bypassing Russia. In mid-January, Azerbaijan gave its firm commitment for the long-term provision of gas to the EU, and Turkmenistan signalled its interest, he stresses in the Austrian daily newspaper die Presse dated 3 February. To top up supplies for Nabucco, the energy commissioner also mentioned the possibility of using Iraqi gas. “This is an option. I wrote to the Iraqi government in December to ask for a meeting”, he said.
In the meantime, “ÖMV and other companies can and must now move forward”, Oettinger stressed. The Austrian energy group leads the consortium made up of the groups Bulgargaz of Bulgaria, Germany's RWE, MOL of Hungary, Transgaz of Romania and the Turkish Botas, to build a pipeline 3,300 km long with a capacity of 31 billion cubic metres a year. But none of the groups has so far finalised its investment decisions. At this stage, only a call for tenders for steel tubes has been forthcoming. The cost of the gas pipeline has been estimated at €7.9 billion. The EIB, the EBRD and the International Finance Corporation agreed in September on a pre-funding plan for the project in the order of €4 billion. (E.H./transl.fl)