Azerbaijan, Baku, 23 July/ Trend , corr A. Alasgarov, A. Badalova/ South Stream project is the link to Europe for Azerbaijan, Thomas Huemer, the representative of OMV said to Trend by e-mail.
"Azerbaijan is an important source for Nabucco and South Stream, so the project would bring us all in a win-win situation," Huemer said.
In early June, Russia and Austria reached an agreement to sign an inter-government agreement on Austria's joining to South Stream gas pipeline initiated by Gazprom and Italian ENI. The agreement envisages appointing OMV, operator of Nabucco project, coordinator of project from Austria who will determine the structure of the capital of the joint venture, which will deal with the transportation of a gas up to Baumgarten.
According to Huemer, OMV is not coordinator for South Stream in Austria there are no finalized discussions regarding that issue.
South Stream gas pipeline is expected to transit and supply natural gas from 2013 to Balkans and other European countries from Russia through the Black Sea.
According to Huemer, South stream and Nabucco do not compete with each other.
"Nabucco is our clear Nr 1 Pipeline project with the goal of diversification of gas supply. OMV stays committed to Nabucco,' he said.
The participants of Nabucco include the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE. Each of the participants holds equal shares - 16.67% each. Nabucco project worth $12.4bln is expected to deliver gas from Azerbaijan and Central Asia to EU by 2013. The large energy company Gaz de France is also interested in obtaining part of the gas transported via this gas pipeline.
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