Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.17 /Trend A. Badalova /
The Nabucco Pipeline Consortium, designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU countries, is not in talks to merge with the ITGI (Turkey-Greece-Italy) pipeline project, the consortium's official statement says.
"There have been no discussions between Nabucco and ITGI about any potential cooperation and no discussions have taken place within the consortium," the statement says.
This week, media outlets reported quoting the Executive Director of the Italian company Edison Roberto Poti about the possibility of merging the "Nabucco" and ITGI pipelines in one, which, according to him, would be sufficient to meet Europe's need for gas. Edison is a shareholder of the ITGI project, which is implemented within the Southern Corridor and envisages gas supply from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU.
ITGI includes a modernized Turkish pipeline infrastructure, as well as projects ITG (connecting pipeline Turkey-Greece) and IGI (Greece-Italy). IGI Poseidon S.A. was created by the Italian company Edison and Greek company Depa for the design and construction of the pipeline Greece-Italy, known as Poseidon.
According to the consortium's statement, Nabucco is being developed as a stand-alone pipeline and will be a crucial link between the Caspian Region and Middle-East region and Europe.
In recent years, the statements on possible merging of the Nabucco project with other pipeline projects are frequently voiced. In late January, Joschka Fischer, who is the head of the company Joschka Fischer & Company, acting as PR-consultant for the construction project of the Nabucco gas pipeline, said that Europe must unite three competing gas pipeline projects to ensure diversification of supplies from Russia. Earlier, U.S. Ambassador to Italy David Thorne said about the possibility of merging the Nabucco and South Stream projects.
Nabucco is worth 7.9 billion euro, with its construction planned to start in 2012 and the first supplies to be commissioned in 2015. The project's participants include the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE, each having an equal 16.67 percent share. The pipeline's maximum capacity will hit 31 billion cubic meters per year.