Azerbaijan, Baku, March 1 / Trend A.Badalova /
Southern Corridor will allow providing the EU countries with new sources of gas supply and new routes, the head of the delegation of the European Union in Azerbaijan Roland Kobia said to a meeting of the Caspian-European Integration Business Club. He said the Nabucco pipeline project, which is part of the Southern Corridor, is important for both the EU and Azerbaijan.
"Both sides - the supplier and the buyer - have a common interest in the project, said Kobia. Suppliers are interested in diversifying potential buyers, and buyers are interested in diversifying their suppliers." According to Kobia, the Nabucco project is developing very well.
"There are no problems with the Nabucco project. Like all projects of gas pipelines, this is a complex project, as well as envisages many kilometers of pipes, there are many issues to be resolved - technical, legal questions, sometimes political. That's normal," said Kobia.
"I believe that Azerbaijan demonstrates a very strong commitment to implement the Nabucco project. "The same commitment is paid by the EU," said Kobia.
According to Kobia, the project also does not experience any financial problems. "These are companies, and they are willing to allocate money. So far I have not seen that some company said that it could not allocate money because of the financial and economic crisis. I would also like to note that international financial institutions such as the EBRD and the EIB support the project," said Kobia.
Nevertheless, Kobia said that Nabucco is not the only project in which the EU is interested. "There is also the ITGI project. We hope that the final decision will be made later this year," said Kobia.
Nabucco gas pipeline project is worth €7.9 billion. Participants of the project are Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE companies. Each of participants has equal share to the amount of 16.67 percent. Construction of gas pipeline is planned to be launched in 2011, the first supplies - in 2014. Maximal capacity of the pipeline will hit 31 billion cubic meters per year. Nabucco Gas Pipeline International shareholders will invest 30 percent of total cost of the project, the rest 70 percent will be paid owing to loans.
The ITGI Transport Corridor designed to transport the Azerbaijani gas to Greece and Italy includes an updated Turkish pipeline infrastructure, as well as projects ITG (connecting pipeline Turkey-Greece) and IGI. Greece-Italy junction pipeline is a missing link of Turkey-Greece-Italy transport corridor which enables to transport gas from the Caspian region and Middle East to Italy and West Europe via Turkey and Greece. The designed carrying capacity of ITGI is 12bln cu m per year.
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