Christian Dolezal

Azerbaijan is ready to supply gas to the Nabucco gas pipeline which will connect the Caspian region, Middle East and Egypt via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary with Austria and the gas markets of central and Western Europe.  May construction of Nabucco start in 2011?

Nabucco construction will start at the end of 2011. Shareholders and the Nabucco Company are determined to achieve this target.

The president of Azerbaijan's State Oil Company thinks participation in the alternative Russian-backed South Stream project is possible. What do you think about it?

Every company has its own strategy and this is fully understandable. We know that Nabucco offers unique business opportunities for suppliers; the Intergovernmental Agreement is a stable legal framework because it is a treaty between all transit countries. No other project offers this comfort.

Nabucco is the leading project in southeastern Europe - for the EU, for Turkey and for the big European energy companies involved. Therefore we are convinced that Nabucco offers direct access to the European gas market for Azerbaijan and this is a winning situation for the future.

Do you think the unification of Nabucco and South Stream is possible?

The Nabucco project is highly competitive - commercially and technically. We are fully focusing on the successful realization of the project according to the feasibility study and there is no need to change the concept. Future modifications of the overall pipeline concept or referring to the constellation of the group of joint venture partners will have to be evaluated and decided by the shareholders.

We never excluded any gas source and feeder line connection. The higher the gas volumes to be transported via the pipeline system the better the competitiveness due to economies of scope and of scale. That will further reduce the transport cost of gas via Nabucco. Moreover we underlined repeatedly that Nabucco will contribute to meet the gas supply needs of Turkey and southeastern Europe and via the Central European Gas hub it will reach the whole European gas market.

Tamilla Sencaply
News.Az