Eva-Redi
zizani with a twist
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Nabucco vs Gazprom pipelines
Fri Apr 25 2008 12:15 PM
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Nabucco vs Gazprom pipelines (natural gas and oil)
International Herald Tribune, April 22, 2008
Turkey is playing hardball in the geopolitical struggle over an $8 billion pipeline at the center of Europe's efforts to cut dependence on Russian natural gas.
Turkey is trying to profit from its strategic location bridging Europe and Central Asia and to become a key part of Europe's energy plan. This might bolster its push to join the European Union - if its negotiating tactics don't exhaust Europe's patience.
Europe wants Turkey to be a transit corridor along the Nabucco pipeline's route, which is to run 3,300 kilometers, or nearly 2,100 miles, from the Caspian Sea region to Austria. Turkey wants more control: acting as a regional energy hub, collecting gas from the east, buying some domestically at below-market prices and passing on the rest to Europe for a variable fee.
"Nabucco is a demonstration project of Turkey's intent to join the European Union," said Brendan Devlin, assistant to Jozias van Aartsen, the EU's Nabucco negotiator. "By delivering on this project, Turkey would clearly underline its importance to the EU."
Named after a Verdi opera about the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, Nabucco comprises energy companies from Turkey and five EU member states: Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Germany. From its inception in 2002, the project, based in Vienna, has been the focus of a political scrum over European energy security.
Turkey's push for more control over Nabucco, and more revenue, clashes with the EU's proposal that Turkey - like Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria - collect only transmission fees tied to costs.
Turkey has already exerted influence over Nabucco, last year blocking Gaz de France from joining after the French Parliament made it a crime to deny that the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I was genocide.
Negotiations between the EU and Turkey over Nabucco are to end this summer, when the EU must decide on future gas contracts.
>> http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/22/europe/letter.php
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The estimated $7-billion Nabucco project is a proposed 3,300-kilometer pipeline designed to carry Caspian gas to Central Europe via Turkey and the Balkans
France passed a bill in 2006, making it a crime to deny that mass killings of Armenians under Ottoman rule during World War I was a genocide, which Turkey vehemently opposes.
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March 18, 2008
The Great Game is now focusing on gas supplies, and France is in the hot seat. The question is: will the French join in the Nabucco pipeline project, which aims to carry gas from the Caspian Sea and the Middle East through Turkey and on to Europe; or will they join with Gazprom on the far more expensive South Stream line, which will carry Russian-controlled gas through Serbia and Bulgaria? The Nabucco consortium is owned by Austria's OMV, Hungary's MOL, Turkey's Botas, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz, and Romania's Transgaz. The latest to join in February was German energy giant RWE. Construction on the 2,050-mile Nabucco line could begin this year.
Gaz de France has expressed interest in joining Nabucco, but is opposed by Turkey, which has been angered by French efforts to criminalize denial of the Armenian genocide before and during World War I. Turkey has long rejected the charge that its actions against the Armenians constituted genocide.
Turkey's opposition may be driving the French into the arms of Gazprom [Russia] and Eni [Italy], the South Stream's two main backers. The line will extend from Russia via the Black Sea to Bulgaria, and then to Serbia, Hungary, and Austria, or it may be routed to Greece and Italy. Gazprom needs strong political influence in Europe to make that project happen, while GdF needs reliable sources of gas. If GdF, Eni, and Gazprom do in fact link up, their combined resources will create a significant competitor to Nabucco.
>> http://www.energytribune.com/articles.cfm?aid=824
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Greece to join Russia's South Stream
April 21 2008
| Company: Gazprom
| Country: Greece
Greece's Development Minister Christos Folias said on April 15 his country has agreed to join the Kremlin-backed South Stream natural gas pipeline project, further intensifying energy ties with Russia.
"We have agreed to be part of the South Stream project. We are now discussing technical details to formulate a document that we can then sign. The political will is there from both sides. That is a given," Folias said.
He said that he did not view the EUbacked Nabucco pipeline as a competitor. "I do not want to see them as athletes competing against each other. I would say they are complementing each other and are offering Europe multiple energy providers, which is good," he said.
The pipeline, which will be jointly built by Russian gas monopoly Gazprom and Italy's ENI, will eventually take 30 billion cubic metres Russian natural gas a year to southern Europe, with Greece becoming a transit state on the southern arm of the pipeline pumping gas to Italy.
An intergovernmental agreement on Greece joining the South Stream gas pipeline project is expected to be signed in May 2008, Deputy Industry and Energy Minister Andrei Dementyev was quoted by the press as saying. He noted that nearly all the details of the document had already been agreed upon.
>> http://www.neurope.eu/articles/85560.php
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