(Start of meeting, background)
ANKARA (AFP)--The leaders of four European Union countries and
Turkey gathered here Monday to sign a landmark deal to build a gas
pipeline reducing European reliance on Russia amid lingering
questions on who will supply the gas.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was hosting the
gathering, attended also by his counterparts from Austria,
Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, through which the 3,300-kilometer
Nabucco pipeline would pass.
The project, long delayed by lack of commitment from suppliers,
is planned to become operational in 2014 at an estimated cost of
EUR7.9 billion, with a capacity to pump 31 billion cubic meters of
gas from the Caspian Sea to Austria via Turkey and the Balkans,
bypassing Russia.
In a sign of the importance attached to the project, European
Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki of potential supplier Iraq and U.S. special envoy for
Eurasian energy Richard Morningstar attended the gathering.
A quarter of all natural gas used in Europe currently comes from
Russia, with several southern European countries depending almost
exclusively on Russian supplies.
The Nabucco projects aims to avoid a repetition of the cutoffs
which have recently disrupted supplies to Europe amid freezing
temperatures.
It is in direct competition with Russia's South Stream which
will carry Russian gas through Bulgaria to Western Europe under the
Black Sea.
Nabucco's primary potential supplier Azerbaijan, represented by
its energy minister at Monday's meeting, insists it has enough
reserves for the conduit, but last month it signed a deal to export
gas to Russia starting in 2010, raising concerns among Nabucco
proponents.
The project appeared to get a boost Friday when Turkmenistan
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said his country was prepared
to supply Nabucco with gas.
Officials say the signing of the intergovernmental agreement
Monday would serve to boost the project's credibility and lead gas
exporters to think seriously about supplying the pipeline.
Two European banks have expressed readiness to finance the
project, but analysts say securing the cost could be difficult amid
the global economic slowdown and uncertainty over suppliers.
Monday's signing "is a very significant achievement... (but) we
have to recognize that there is still a lot of work to be done,"
Morningstar told reporters ahead of the meeting.
The signing of the agreement has been delayed also by Turkish
demands to use 15% of Nabucco's gas for domestic use or even for
re-export.
E.U. officials said Ankara's concerns were to be addressed by an
arrangement, under which the pipeline would operate both ways,
giving Turkey access to European stockpiles in times of need.
The pipeline's shareholders are Austria's OMV AG (OMV.VI),
Germany's RWE.AG (RWE.XE), MOL Nyrt (MOL.BU) of Hungary, Transgaz
of Romania, Bulgargaz of Bulgaria and Botas of Turkey.