Good news from Italy for fans of the Nabucco pipeline, the project designed to end Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas. Plans by Italian energy behemoth ENI to ship gas from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan comes as a demux ex machina solution for the pipeline, which skeptics believe Azerbaijan alone cannot fill.
After meeting Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, ENI CEO Paolo Scaroni told The Wall Street Journal on July 20 that he plans to ship between two to three billion cubic meters of compressed natural gas across the Caspian Sea to feed the Azerbaijan-Turkey transit pipeline. The pipeline begins in Azerbaijan and ends in the Turkish city of Erzurum, the proposed launch pad for Nabucco.
The news is of potential interest for Georgia and Romania, which are both looking to set up a similar arrangement across the Black Sea. Unlike ENI’s project, Georgia hopes to start shipping Azerbaijani gas to Romania in a liquefied form -- deep-pocketed investors depending.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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