Austria steps up pressure for construction of Nabucco gas pipeline

With a new round of contacts and exploratory talks, leading Austrian politicians are trying to force a final decision on the construction of the planned Nabucco natural gas pipeline from Eurasia to Europe via Vienna.

Gusenbauer: "Will build Nabucco pipeline at all events"

During the plenary session of the United Nations in New York, Austrian Federal Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer met Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and also held talks with Nursultan Nasarbajew and Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the respective presidents of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Prior to that, Austrian Minister of Economics and Labour Martin Bartenstein had held negotiations with Kazakhstan's Energy Minister Sauat Mynbayev, and signed a "memorandum of understanding" in Baku with Azerbaijan's Energy Minister, Natiq Aliyev.

In it the Azeri expressed a commitment to long-term gas supplies for Europe. The purpose of stepping up activities was to gain the backing of natural gas-rich countries like Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan for the planned Nabucco pipeline, to ensure support for it from Turkey, and to carry out the entire project in the face of opposition from Russia and the USA. Gusenbauer in New York: "We will build the Nabucco pipeline at all events." Austria had to significantly reduce its dependence on Russia's energy policy and put its energy supplies on a broader footing. The Nabucco pipeline was "indispensable" in this connection. Bartenstein had previously described this pipeline as "Europe's most important energy project of all".

Azeri to be won over as project partners

The current situation is now as follows. To encourage Azerbaijan to take the plunge and agree to long-term gas supplies for Europe, Socar, Azerbaijan's state-owned gas company, is to be offered up to 10% of the shares in the Nabucco operating company. However, the main problem here is that Socar would have to raise cash for this purpose which it does not have. It wants to pay with gas supplies, which the operators of the Nabucco pipeline are not prepared to accept. In the light of Russian misgivings about a pipeline via the Caucasus, Turkmenistan, the country with the world's third largest gas reserves, is now planning an underwater pipeline beneath the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan on the opposite shore.

Kazakhstan also intends to continue a two-pronged approach in close cooperation with Russia, and has agreed on a new gas pipeline with Moscow. Regardless of this, however, it is also considering shipping natural gas and mineral oil across the Caspian Sea by tanker, or even by pipeline, first to Azerbaijan and from there to Europe via Turkey. Along with Libya and Russia, Kazakhstan is one of Austria's most important oil suppliers.

Nabuccco behind the scenes

OMV, Austria's largest energy concern, is the driving force behind the Nabucco project for a gas pipeline from the region of the Caspian Sea to a European distribution centre in the vicinity of Vienna. The other members of the planned Nabucco consortium at the current time include the gas companies of Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Germany's RWE company might become a sixth partner, and a decision has yet to be taken on whether Gas de France will also be joining the consortium. The Nabucco pipeline is estimated to cost around five billion euros. If the pipeline is to pay for itself, it must carry at least 12 billion m³ of gas right from the start. The final stage foresees a capacity of over 30 billion m³. The pipeline will be around 3,300 km in length, and is scheduled to go into operation in the year 2011.

Siehe auch: Competition for European gas
OMV Pipeline makes Vienna Europe's Gas-Supply Hub

Link

OMV Nabucco operating company Latest 2007 Nabucco presentation

Information:

The name Nabucco itself stands for freedom and independence. The name reminds us of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II (~630-562 BC), who took the Jews into exile in Mesopotamia, whence they were eventually freed from captivity. Giuseppe Verdi wrote his opera Nabucco on the subject in 1841, a work that has since generally been interpreted as a people's striving to be free of subordination.