EU energy coordinator to press Turkey on Nabucco
Posted by meb at February 12th, 2008
The European Union’s coordinator for natural gas projects in southern Europe is expected to visit Ankara Thursday to press the Turkish government to lend more support to the proposed Nabucco natural gas pipeline following mounting concerns over Turkey’s commitment to the project, the Financial Times reported.
Jozias van Aartsen will urge Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to tackle some of the obstacles facing the plan.
“If they are seeking a relationship with the EU, it is one of the ways to make really clear that they do want a future relationship,” Van Aartsen told the Financial Times over the weekend.
The EU Commission was expected to grant a key regulatory approval to Nabucco yesterday, marking a further step forward for the scheme. RWE, one of Germany’s biggest energy companies, joined the project consortium last week.
However, Nabucco still raises many concerns, including the role of Turkey.
The project, a 3,300-kilometer route to bring gas from Azerbaijan and other countries in the Caspian region, is supposed to bolster the EU’s energy security by providing an alternative to Russian supplies.
Ankara has repeatedly said it is committed to Nabucco, and Botaş, the Turkish gas company, is a member of the project consortium. The Nabucco consortium is equally owned by oil and gas companies in the transit countries Austria’s OMV, Hungary’s MOL, Romania’s Transgaz, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz and Turkey’s Botaş. Austria’s OMV holds 39 percent of the shares of Turkey’s Petrol Ofisi, whose majority shares belong to the Doğan Holding.
However, Turkey has failed to agree a pricing framework for the use of the pipeline, and supplies from Turkey to Greece have been interrupted recently following the loss of supplies from Iran reported the London based daily. Ankara is also resisting the entry of Gaz de France (GDF) to the Nabucco consortium for political reasons.
The GDF said last week that it had not given up on being allowed to join Nabucco, but was now looking at other projects in the area. These include South Stream, a plan between Gazprom and Eni of Italy to build a pipeline from Russia to Bulgaria.
Source: Turkish Daily News
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