Azernews.Az

BRUSSELS – The EU expects to receive gas for Nabucco gas pipeline in the coming years. Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan have presented concrete plans for gas supply, Deutsche Welle reports.

"I think realistic, that pipeline will be operational within two to three years" - said in Brussels, EU Energy Commissioner, Guenther Oettinger.

He also noted that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev expressed readiness for the next five to eight years to sell through the Nabucco to 21 billion cubic meters of gas annually. Turkmenistan, in turn, agreed to allocate at least 10 billion cubic meters a year. That's enough to fill the pipeline capacity, representing about 31 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

Meanwhile, at the NATO conference on energy security, held in Ankara, an employee of the Center for Strategic Studies under the President of Azerbaijan Gyulmira Rzayev called the conditions under which Azerbaijan would support the project. This is, first and foremost, the presence of the second vendor, because the country does not want to alone bear the transportation costs for transporting gas. The second requirement is access to nearby markets in Western countries. At the same time Rzayev noted that, despite the availability of alternatives, the European market with its 500 million consumers is a priority for Azerbaijan.

According to experts, the first talks on Nabucco stale because of pressure from Russia, as Gazprom is fighting for the Russian South Stream project, fearing for the fate of its monopoly on gas transportation to Europe.

Nabucco gas pipeline should deliver gas from Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and other Caspian states to the EU. Preparation of the project started in 2002. The current version of the route passes through Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Nabucco is to reduce European dependence on Russian gas.