Azerbaijan, Baku, 27 March / corr. Trend A. Badalova/ Azerbaijan has plenty of gas to realize the Turkey, Greece, Italy pipeline (TGI) and Nabucco, Matthew J. Bryza, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs of the United States said, the U.S. State Department said.
" Azerbaijan has plenty of gas to realize the Turkey, Greece, Italy pipeline. But not just that, it has plenty of gas to launch the Nabucco pipeline after TGI, and probably has plenty of gas to fill Nabucco," Bryza said.
According to Bryza, Greek Minster of Development, Mr. Folias's trip to Azerbaijan is really the first step in implementing the Greece-Azerbaijan memorandum of understanding on energy.
"Our goal is to help Turkmenistan think its way forward about how its wishes to develop multiple options to export its gas, just as we seek to help our NATO ally, in this case Greece, have multiple options to buy gas. The goal is not to hurt Russia or Gazprom," he said.
The Nabucco project consists of a 3,300 kilometre pipeline, with a planned maximum capacity of 31 billion cubic meters per year. It will help ensure the provision of gas to Europe from producers in the Middle East and Caspian region. The pipeline will cross Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and will end in Baumgarten an der March, a major natural gas hub in Austria. Works are expected to begin in 2009 and should be completed in 2012
The consortium on the construction of the gas pipeline includes the companies OMV Gas GmbH ( Austria), Bulgargaz ( Bulgaria), Transgaz S.A. ( Romania), MOL Natural Gas Transmission Company Ltd. ( Austria), Botas ( Turkey), and RWE ( Germany).