EurasiaNet Business & Economics - Russia on Nabucco: If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

RUSSIA ON NABUCCO: IF YOU CAN’T BEAT THEM, JOIN THEM
1/20/09

Russia will not oppose the construction of the Nabucco pipeline and is keen to see it become a success, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced Tuesday.

"If there is gas to fill the pipeline, why not sell it?" Lavrov commented to the Russian news agency Interfax on January 20. "More routes will mean safer gas supplies for Europe," he added.

The Nabucco pipeline aims to pump Eurasian gas into Europe while bypassing Russia’s existing network of pipelines.

Lavrov’s comments come a day after Turkish Prime Minister Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told European Union officials that if Turkey’s accession to the EU was not moved forward, Turkish support for Nabucco could be withdrawn.

"If we are faced with a situation where the energy chapter is blocked, we would, of course, review our position," Erdogan said in Brussels January 19.

The Turkish Prime Minister also said the EU needed to engage with Iran if it wanted to see the pipeline operating at full capacity, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported. "In the Nabucco project there needs to be 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas flowing, but it’s not there," Erdogan warned.

The EU is uncomfortably reliant on gas and oil imports from Russia and is keen to diversify its energy sources. Upon completion, the 3,300-kilometer-long Nabucco pipeline is expected to pump 31 billion cubic meters of gas directly to Europe by 2020. Construction of the trans-Caspian pipeline is scheduled to begin in 2010. However, the pipeline’s success will depend on securing exports from Turkmenistan and, eventually, Iran, analysts say.

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