Azernews.Az

An inter-governmental agreement on the NABUCCO pipeline project that seeks to pump gas from the resource-rich Caspian and Central Asia regions to Europe by-passing Russia may be signed in the next three to four months.
Reinhard Mitschek, the managing director of NABUCCO Gas Pipeline International, has said the dispute over gas supplies between Russia and Ukraine, which often emerges in winter, has prompted European nations to thoroughly consider alternate routes to acquire sources of energy, especially in the conditions of the global economic crisis.
"All countries involved have stated their commitment to the project. Major advances have been made in drafting the text of the inter-governmental agreement, which is currently under discussion between the European Commission and the governments of the participating states. We believe the signing will take place in the first quarter of 2009," Mitschek said.
He emphasized that the NABUCCO project was attractive for all countries involved - producers, consumers and transit states. "The current situation shows the need for realizing this project, for diversifying oil and gas pipeline routes."
The West-backed project worth 8 billion euros aims to deliver 30 billion cubic meters of gas to European markets through a 3,300-kilometer pipeline through Azerbaijan and Turkey to Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria.
Meanwhile, Alexander Vondra, Deputy Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, which is chairing the European Union, said construction of the NABUCCO pipeline may be completed in 2015, although the 2013 deadline has been cited so far.
Vondra noted that Prague plans to conduct a summit of the states participating in the project this spring.
He went on to say that during the Czech chairmanship in the EU, his government would work to speed up the project.
Further, Vondra said there was a number of challenges standing in the way of materializing the initiative, emphasizing that a consortium of key energy exporters - Caspian littoral states - has yet to be established.
Analysts say Azerbaijan`s hydrocarbons alone do not suffice to implement the project. Lithuania`s foreign minister has lately said that NABUCCO, which will partly meet the needs of Europe for gas in the long term, is not an existing, but, rather, an envisioned project.
Azerbaijani Minister of Energy and Industry Natig Aliyev agrees with this view. He believes the project is extremely complex and a number of problems are to be resolved to pave the way for its implementation.
"Initially, sources of gas from the Middle East were envisioned for NABUCCO, but the ensuing developments made this impossible, highlighting the issue of using Caspian gas as a source. However, Azerbaijan`s reserves alone cannot make NABUCCO a reality, and the project definitely requires gas from Central Asia, including Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. But this brings to the fore new problems. Both of these countries are delivering their gas to Europe through Russia. Therefore, NABUCCO is not an existing, but an envisioned project. We should take into account that the current economic and financial crisis in the world has complicated the project further."
But experts argue that there are actually no problems with exporting Azerbaijan`s gas in terms of economic viability. The resource-rich South Caucasus republic is capable of transporting 14 billion cubic meters of gas a year through the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline, which provides neighboring Turkey and Georgia with fuel.
Additionally, NABUCCO is considered a politically important project, although, if realized, it will supply less than one-fifth of Europe`s demand for gas. By pushing for the project, European nations are trying to ease their dependence on Russia, which maintains a tight grip on energy supplies.
Russia currently provides over 40 per cent of Europe`s gas needs. Over 80 per cent of the exported fuel flows to the EU states through Ukraine`s territory. However, in the wake of the recent dispute between Moscow and Kiev, Russia cut off its supplies to Ukraine from January 1 and those to Europe via this country - from January 7.