Azernews.Az

The United States is striving to export gas produced in Turkmenistan's section of the Caspian Sea to Europe via the NABUCCO and Turkey-Greece-Italy pipelines, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza has said.
Bryza said Washington was looking for part of gas from the resource-rich region to be transported to European markets by-passing Russia, but made it clear that it was not aiming to squeeze the long-standing rival out of the Central Asian state. "We honor the contracts signed between Turkmenistan and Russian companies."
Bryza said that by backing Caspian gas exports through alternative routes, Washington was not merely pursuing its own interests, as Americans themselves would not use the gas to be delivered by the two mentioned conduits.
"We are pursuing strategic interests here. The U.S. is trying to solve the problem of energy supplies to its European allies. Their economic independence meets our national security interests," the State Department official said.
The West-backed pipeline is to pump gas from Central Asia to Azerbaijan under the Caspian Sea, then to Georgia and Turkey and further to energy-hungry European markets. The pipe's annual throughput capacity is estimated at 31 billion cubic meters. The NABUCCO project will help European countries to diversify supplies of energy. Building the 3,300-km trans-Caspian conduit could take until 2012, while transportation of first gas via the pipe is expected in 2013.

Sixth shareholder
German company RWE has become the sixth shareholder of the project on building the NABUCCO pipeline. The company's participation in the project was endorsed in Vienna last week.
Chief Executive Officer of RWE Gas Midstream Stefan Judisch expressed confidence that the $6 billion project would step up the security of Europe's gas supplies.
Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler told the ceremony that he saw no hurdles in the way of implementing the project or its delay. He noted that Turkish specialists that were involved in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main oil export pipeline project will now work to make the NABUCCO route a reality.
RWE has now acquired a 16.67% stake in the project, just like the other five shareholders. The participating interests are also held by Turkish Botas company, Romanian Transgas, Bulgarian Bulgargas, Austrian OMV, and Hungarian MOL.