Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 22 / Trend , A.Badalova, U.Sadikhova /The prospects of joining of Iraq to the Nabucco pipeline project are not good, contrary to what Turkish President Abdullah Gul has been indicating, Sameer Dossani, the Director of the '50 Years Is Enough' U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice, said.
Recently, Turkish President Gul stated that apart from the Central Asian countries Iran and Iraq may also join the Nabucco project. According to Gul, the production of enough volume of gas is the key problem of the project.
One key problem is that if Turkey wants gas from Iraq and Iran to be part of the project, infrastructure would have to be built in the Iraqi, Irani and Turkish areas of Kurdistan.
"Turkey has been particularly brutal in repressing its Kurdish minority, so the chances of sabotage along that route would be extremely high," Dossani, who was the Executive Director of the NGO Forum on the Asian Development Bank, said to Trend .
The other question is one of timing. Iraq may join the Nabucco project only in the second or third stage, Dossani believes.
"Whether or not that second or third stage is ever built will depend on the situation in Iraq in a few years," Dossani added.
The first stage of construction of Nabucco pipeline will begin in 2010 and it will include pipeline between Turkey and Austria with the length of 2,000km. For two subsequent years the existing pipeline power on the borders between Turkey and Georgia, and also Turkey and Iran will be put into operation.
The second stage of construction of the pipeline is scheduled for the end of 2014 and includes building of section on the Turkish- Georgian and Turkish- Iranian boundaries.
OMV is the operator of Nabucco with a 20% share. Nabucco gas pipeline will ensure gas delivery from and Central Asia to the EU countries. The maximum capacity of the pipeline is 31bln cu m per year. Nabucco is developed by the companies of OMV, MOL (Hungary), Botas (Turkey), Bulgargaz (Bulgaria) and Transgaz (Romania). Each of the companies has equal shares - 16.67%. About 30% of the total cost of the project will be invested by shareholders of the Nabucco Gas Pipeline International, and the rest 70% will be paid at expenses of credits.
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