Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend S.Aliyev / The Executive Director of the Austrian OMV Company, Reinhardt Mintek, briefed the media on 7 June in Baku regarding how the existence of any number of gas suppliers will not decrease the effectiveness and necessity to realize the NABUCCO pipeline project for European consumers.
OMV Company is involved in the development of this project.
"In any case, Europe will need to purchase gas through NABUCCO," Mintek said.
The NABUCCO pipeline, 4km in length, envisions transporting Middle Asian and Caspian gas to Europe via Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Austria. The pipeline is expected to be launched in 2011. The cost of the project is estimated at €5bln. The project is developed by Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Turkish Botas, Bulgarian Bulgargaz and Romanian Transgaz.
Touching upon various gas projects envisaging fuel export to Europe, Mintek said that the NABUCCO and "Blue Stream" projects may jointly work in Europe.
"NABUCCO presents infrastructure, but the European gas traders will have to hold negotiations with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and other suppliers from Azerbaijan regarding the prices and commercial conditions of the fuel delivery," he said.
"In any case, they will have to find compromise in the gas business," Mintek added.
"Blue Stream" is a gas pipeline between Russia and Turkey. The pipeline in 1,213km in length. The pipeline has been constructed on the base of the Russian-Turkish agreement dated 1997 according to which Russia should supply 364.5bln cu.m of gas to Turkey from 2000-2025. The expenditures for the construction of the pipeline amounted to $3.2bln.