Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 27 / Trend N.Ismayilova /
The Czech Republic supports the Southern Energy Corridor project, which also includes the Nabucco pipeline project, Czech Republic's Ambassador to Azerbaijan Radek Matula said addressing the Azerbaijani-Czech business forum in Baku.
"The project is aimed to diversify the sources and routes of gas supplies. Today, the Czech Republic's demand in gas amounts to 8-8.5 billion cubic meters a year," Matula said.
According to him, the main source of gas supplies to the Czech Republic is Russia, which occupies 73-78 percent of deliveries. The country imports the remaining amount of gas from Norway.
Matula said the volume of the Azerbaijani oil imported to the Czech Republic hits about 25 percent of the country's total consumption.
Nabucco gas pipeline project is worth €7.9 billion. 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.
Construction of the Nabucco pipeline will be implemented in two main phases. The first phase of construction (2011) includes laying a new pipeline length of 2,000 kilometers, starting at the Turkish border and ending in Austria's Baumgarten. The second phase (2014-2015 year) includes the construction of the remainder of the pipeline on the border between Turkey and Georgia, as well as Turkey and Iraq.
Construction of the first section of Nabucco length of 2.730 kilometers will begin in the southern part of Ankara (Turkey) and will continue in the western direction to the Bulgarian border through Central Anatolia and the Marmara Sea. 75 percent of the route will pass through existing pipelines.
Nabucco participants are the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE. Each has an equal 16.67-percent share.
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