Brussels, 27/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - This week, the staff of European Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger confirmed the forthcoming opening of negotiations (probably in September) for agreements with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on gas supplies from the Nabucco gas pipeline. A spokesperson for the commissioner, Marlene Holzner, confirmed to the Azeri Trend News Agency that “it was decided to give the EU Commission a mandate to hold negotiations, which can last for months”.
Quoting a Polish governmental source, the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza announced last week that the Polish Presidency had reached a compromise with member states on the mandate to be granted to the Commission for negotiating a gas supply agreement with Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan from the Nabucco gas pipeline project. This compromise will still need to be ratified by European energy ministers and is expected to enable the European Commission to launch negotiations in September with these two former USSR republics and potential gas suppliers to Europe through the southern gas corridor.
The Nabucco gas pipeline is the main infrastructure in addition to the trans-Adriatic pipeline Interconnection Turkey-Greece-Italy (ITGI). Nabucco's operation has now been postponed until 2017. It is expected to transport gas from central Asia under the Caspian Sea, then through Turkey to the EU, by bypassing Russia. (E.H./transl.fl)