Azernews.Az

A summit will be organized this year at the Hungarian government`s initiative to advance the slow-moving NABUCCO pipeline project aimed at exporting Caspian gas to Europe bypassing Russia.
Government spokesman David Daroczi said the Hungarian Prime Minister had initiated the meeting to draw all the players in the project including its shareholders, the transit and supply countries.
He was speaking after Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany paid a three-day visit to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan last week.
"We sense that NABUCCO could be developing much faster," the spokesman added.
The summit is to take place in November-December in Budapest. Officials from Azerbaijan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, the United States and the European Commission will be invited. The discussions will center on ways of expediting the project, as well as issues concerning funding and supplies.
Analysts say the fact that energy issues topped the agenda of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev`s talks during his recent visit to Azerbaijan and Central Asian states and Moscow`s offering "European prices at home" for gas imports from these countries could deal a heavy blow upon prospects for the NABUCCO project. Russia`s statements that Turkmenistan will not participate in the project are grounds for that conclusion.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza says that after Russian giant Gazprom witnessed the Turkey-Greece-Italy and the NABUCCO pipeline projects progressing, it stepped up struggle for energy supply routes by putting forward new initiatives.
"Gazprom, which is a monopoly, is acting as such, and is seeking to grab control and strangle competition as much as possible. It is crystal clear what`s going on," Bryza said.
But experts believe that unlike Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, which has received a proposal from Russia to sell its gas for market prices, is expected to offer its giant northern neighbor either gas exports in an insignificant volume or joint development of one of the gas fields.
Bloomberg news agency reported that Russia is in talks with Libya, Algeria and Nigeria on tapping fields and buying additional volumes of gas in order to increase gas transportation to Europe.
The NABUCCO participating states are expected to sign inter-governmental agreements in the coming months to launch construction of the pipeline. Azerbaijan, which possesses a large gas field, Shahdaniz, is considered a key supplier for the conduit although talks are under way with other suppliers as well. The country also plans to act as a transit state for the transportation of Turkmen and Kazakh natural gas through the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline to Turkey and further to European markets via NABUCCO.
Construction of the European Union-backed 3,300-kilometer pipeline, running from the Caspian Sea via Turkey and the Balkan states to Austria, is scheduled to begin in 2009, with completion expected in 2013.
The pipeline, which currently has six equal shareholders -- OMV of Austria, MOL of Hungary, Transgaz of Romania, Bulgargaz of Bulgaria, Botas of Turkey and RWE of Germany -- will transport 31 billion cubic meters of gas to the EU from the Middle East and Asia in a bid to reduce the bloc`s reliance on Russian supplies. A third of the project`s costs will be covered by the shareholders, while the other part - by financial and lending institutions.
The investment costs on building the NABUCCO pipeline have recently been raised 50 per cent to 7.9 billion euros. The increase was due to rising world crude and steel prices.