Azernews.Az

Romania is closely cooperating with the Azerbaijani government to ensure the success of the Nabucco gas pipeline project, Prime Minister Victor Ponta said during a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on Thursday, in response to a question of Azerbaijani MP Ganira Pashayeva.

According to him, Romania attaches great importance to cooperation with Azerbaijan.

"One of the important objectives during my term of office is developing the energy potential of the Black Sea region. The Nabucco Project is among those priorities. More constructive cooperation between the countries of the region providing the development of the economy and the energy sector, will afford benefit in the medium and long term prospect.

"Energy development is the primary issue. That is why on May 25 the EU will pay full attention to this topic. In order to ensure the success of Nabucco, we are closely cooperating with the Government of Azerbaijan," Ponta said.

Two pipelines, Nabucco West and TAP, are currently competing over transportation of Azerbaijani gas to the European markets. The gas which will be produced within the second stage of development of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field is considered as the main source for these pipelines projects.

A final decision on the European pipeline is expected to be made by the end of June.