Brussels, 21/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday at an energy and climate change conference in Budapest, Andris Piebalgs affirmed that an agreement on Iran supplying natural gas to the Union via the Nabucco pipeline was not realistic at this stage but could change once the row about the Iranian nuclear issue was solved. Piebalgs explained, “until we have resolved the issue of nuclear uranium enrichment, I doubt that any agreement on gas supplies is possible. However, we think we are on the right path to resolving this. Once a resolution is reached, we think Iran can be an important supplier”. Mr Piebalgs said that Azerbaijan would not be ready to ensure sufficient gas supplies from the Caspian Sea to the Union via the Nabucco pipeline from 2012. He also did not rule out possible gas supplies from Kazakhstan or even Turkmenistan. Finally, Mr Piebalgs reaffirmed his concerns about the threat of an OPEC kind of gas cartel forming, on the initiative of Russia. He insisted that, “it is understandable for gas producing countries to meet and discuss issue of common interest. But the EU already views the indexation of gas prices to oil as problematic, and this would only be compounded by the formation of a cartel, which would require fixed mechanisms to limit production”. (eh)