Azerbaijan, Baku, May 26 / Trend , A.Badalova /
Trend interview with Managing Director of RWE Supply & Trading Stefan Judisch.
Trend : Your company is one of the shareholders of the Nabucco gas pipeline project. What steps have been taken to accelerate realization of this project?
Stefan Judisch: Since RWE joined the Nabucco consortium as a 6th shareholder in February 2008, we have been working with our partners to build on the solid foundations they had already laid. Despite what one reads occasionally in the press, the project is going forward as planned. This is an achievement, given the complexity and challenges inherent in any such project like Nabucco. We now have a clear timetable for signing the Nabucco Inter-Governmental Agreement around end of June or early July, endorsed by the Prague Southern Corridor Summit. This will provide a guarantee of our ability to build and run the pipeline within a clear legal and regulatory framework. We have agreed on third party access to Nabucco with the EU, and we have now hired the local feed engineers for each transit country of Nabucco. These engineers are already working on detailed design and engineering for building the pipeline.
Q: The construction of this pipeline is said to begin in 2011. Don't you think that Europe should hurry up with its construction? How do you assess in this respect the results of the "Southern Corridor" summit which was held on May 8 in Prague? And how can it help in realisation of Nabucco project?
A: Yes, we should hurry up and we are hurrying up! Millions of gas consumers in Europe who had to live without gas this winter can tell you why. The politicians have recognized this too: the Nabucco Conference in Budapest in January, the Energy Summit in Sofia in April and the Southern Corridor Summit in Prague in May have all expressed very strong political support for diversifying not only the transmission, but also the sources of gas for Europe. And they have recognized that building Nabucco is the answer to at least part of that problem.
That Turkey, the EU and Azerbaijan signed the Prague Summit declaration on 8th May was a positive and powerful signal. But we fully understand the Caspian countries in wanting very soon to be assured that Nabucco is a sure bet before committing themselves to selling gas through it. We have been discussing with all the Governments involved why we need to hold to that deadline, and go on demonstrating that there is real political backing for the project.
Q: Last month RWE signed an agreement with Turkmenistan allowing the company to develop an offshore gas block and seek new ways to deliver Turkmen gas to Europe. Can this agreement be considered like the first step towards gas supply from the Central Asia to Europe via the planned alternative pipeline?
A: We want to bring Europe and the Caspian Region closer together, contribute to the mutual prosperity of all countries involved both by diversifying Europe's gas supplies and providing new markets for supplier countries in caspian region and northern Arabia. This is a win-win proposition.
The partnership with Turkmenistan is indeed an important step towards fulfilling this. It will help diversify Turkmenistan's export markets for gas and the routes it can use; it will improve the security of gas supplies to Europe and Turkey and attract further foreign investment and technical know-how transfer to Turkmenistan.
We have also been engaged in very fruitful discussions with Azerbaijan. President Aliyev has shown strong support for supplying gas to Europe in a number of public statements, including at the Budapest and Prague summits. What the Azeri Government is rightly waiting for now is a concrete sign that Nabucco will go forward.
We signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Kazakhstan in September last year. As part of that, we are conducting a joint study on gasification of the country's significant coal resources and the production of synthetic natural gas for domestic use and export.
Q: What role do you attach to Azerbaijan in terms of diversification of Europe's energy supply sources?
A: Azerbaijan has been at the forefront when it comes to opening the corridor from the Caspian to Europe since the building of the oil and gas export route into Turkey some years ago. President Aliyev has been very active in advocating Nabucco, and has on a number of occasions very clearly expressed his willingness to supply gas to it from the next phase of development of the giant Shah Deniz gas field.
Q: What is your prognosis on demand for gas in Europe, in particularly in Germany? Don't you exclude the possibility of reduction in gas demand in the light of the world financial crisis?
A: Nobody really knows how long such a recession will last, nor how it will impact on long term energy demand. However we can be fairly certain that once the first gas flows through Nabucco we should be long out of the recession. But we do know that Europe's indigenous gas production will decrease more significantly than any temporary dip in demand induced by the present economic situation: Hence the continued need for new gas supplies to Germany and Europe more generally.
The EU has understood that projects to secure gas supplies for Europe are needed urgently, and will continue its support of investments in Europe's energy infrastructure. Indeed, energy projects are a major part of the EU package adopted last week to boost Europe's economic recovery includes 200 million Euros for Nabucco.