Azerbaijan: EU Ambassador Allays Nabucco Fears

Azerbaijan's natural gas resources are enough to get the proposed Nabucco natural gas pipeline project off the ground, but not enough for the project's long-term sustainability, Alan Vaddams, the head of the European Commission's delegation to Azerbaijan, said in a May 18 interview.

Vaddams, in comments published by the Day.az news website, stressed the need for Central Asian energy suppliers in the project, dismissing media reports that Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have stopped short of backing Nabucco out of deference to Moscow.

The three countries' delegations to a May 8 Nabucco summit in Prague were not familiar with the final draft of a summit declaration committing signatories to facilitating construction of the pipeline, and, therefore, had no mandate to sign it, he said.

The European Union and Turkey are scheduled to sign an agreement on the Nabucco pipeline on June 25.