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Azerbaijani President: Azerbaijan supports Nabucco project but given mutual interests

Politics Materials 11 April 2011 20:50 (UTC +04:00)
Geography and infrastructure contributes to displaying an interest to Azerbaijan as a possible supplier of gas to Europe in the future, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Rossiya-24 News TV channel of the All- Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company .
Azerbaijani President: Azerbaijan supports Nabucco project but given mutual interests

Azerbaijan , Baku, April 11 / Trend /

Geography and infrastructure contributes to displaying an interest to Azerbaijan as a possible supplier of gas to Europe in the future, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Rossiya-24 News TV channel of the All- Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company .

He said at present the country's gas potential is being realized in the regional market.

"On the other hand, our capacities and potential output volume, production and transportation are much higher than today's regional markets. In this case, of course, we face a task: either to seek access into new markets or increase our export to traditional ones," Aliyev said.

President Aliyev stressed that Azerbaijan supports the Nabucco project, but given mutual interests. First and foremost, commercial interests should be met. There should be a fair price.

There are so many questions regarding transit of our gas, what the price will be for last consumer, who will pay for construction of the new pipeline.

"What Azerbaijan's role will be as a transit country, as is clear, it is impossible to fill the Nabucco only with the Azerbaijani gas resources. Gas from Central Asia should be also involved for this purpose. Who will deal with commercial, technical issues and political agreements - that is, there are so many ambiguities and a lot of issues that need solutions," Aliyev said.

President Aliyev said early this year the EU and Azerbaijan signed a declaration on the Southern Transport Corridor. A joint working group has been established, as well as consultations have been launched under the project "Southern Corridor".

"I think if these negotiations are successful and all parties' interests are met, of course, we will be interested to enter another gas market. But it all will depend on how the negotiations will be held and to what extent Azerbaijan's interests will be taken into account," Aliyev said.

He said that a serious shortage of gas supply may be observed in Europe by 2030, and it will not only restrain economic development, but also lead to very serious consequences.

President Aliyev said that the best option would be the coordination of efforts and joint activity of producers and consumers and transit countries where it is necessary; so that the issues of gas cooperation didn't become matters of unhealthy competition or any confrontation.

This year Azerbaijan will produce 28 billion cubic meters of gas, about ten or eleven billion of which will account for domestic consumption, and the rest is export resource. Under extra investments of around $20 billion, we can increase gas production by another 15 billion cubic meters or even more.

But it is necessary to have contracts and to have markets in order to make these investments, because one cannot do without it in gas business. Everything is interconnected here, and therefore one needs to plan and coordinate all," President Aliyev said.

Nabucco, worth 7.9 billion euros, is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU. Construction is planned to start in 2012 and first supplies in 2015.

Maximum capacity of the pipeline with length of 3,300 km will hit 31 billion cubic meters. Nabucco participants are the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE, each with equal share of 16.67 percent.

The Southern Corridor is a priority EU energy project diversifying energy supply routes and sources and increasing EU energy security. The Southern Corridor includes the Nabucco gas pipeline, Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), White Stream, and ITGI (Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline).

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