Azerbaijan, Baku, May 26 /Trend, E.Ostapenko, A.Badalova/
The EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger will discuss energy cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan, including the country's intention to export its gas to Nabucco, during his visit to Baku in early June.
The head of the EU representation in Azerbaijan Roland Kobia said Thursday that Oettinger's visit to Baku on June 6-8 is timed with the oil and gas conference and exhibition.
Kobia said the cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU is at a high level. "We appreciate the professionalism of our partners in Azerbaijan, and we believe that our good cooperation will continue in the coming months and years," said Kobia.
Speaking about Azerbaijan's participation in the Nabucco project as a gas supplier, Kobia said that the country needs time to take a final decision, which is quite natural.
Today several options are considered to transport Azerbaijani gas to European markets, and it is important for both the EU and Azerbaijan, which has large gas reserves, Kobia said.
"It would be best to create a unified infrastructure that would allow transporting large volumes of gas to European markets," said Kobia.
Nabucco project envisages gas supplies from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU countries. The pipeline's maximum capacity will hit 31 billion cubic meters per year.
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. The main suppliers of gas for the project are considered Azerbaijan, Iraq and Turkmenistan.
The head of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) Rovnag Abdullayev said this week that Azerbaijan is suitable for all projects involving the supply of gas to European markets, and currently is at the stage of selecting a route for transporting gas to the EU.
Partners on the development of Shah Deniz gas condensate field in Azerbaijan (which also includes SOCAR) intend to sell 10 billion cubic meters of gas on the European market.
As SOCAR said earlier, most cost-effective proposals will be selected among all pipeline projects oriented to Azerbaijani gas supplies to Europe.