Eurasian leaders discuss energy diversification
Hürriyet Daily News / May 6, 2010
Heads of states, government officials and academics meet in Istanbul for the Eurasian Economic Summit, which focuses on energy independence and the Nabucco natural-gas pipeline. 'We are looking for suppliers and the tender offers will start at the end of July,' says the project's head of communications and public affairs
Energy diversification was at the center of discussions at the 13th Eurasian Economic Summit, organized by the Marmara Foundation in Istanbul. The summit, which started Wednesday, is scheduled to end Friday.
The event brought together many distinguished guests from around the world, including heads of states, senior governmental officials, corporate and NGO leaders and academics.
Energy was at the forefront of the agenda as Turkey strives to play a strategic role as an energy corridor between Asia and Europe. The Nabucco project, a plan to supply Western Europe with natural gas from the Caspian Sea via Turkey, was in the spotlight.
“We are looking for suppliers and the tender offers will start at the end of July,” Christian Dolezal, the head of communications and public affairs for Nabucco, said at the summit, reporting on the latest developments with the project.
The new pipeline is central to Europe’s effort to reduce dependence on Russian natural gas. Currently, Europe imports one-quarter of the natural gas it uses from Russia, and approximately 80 percent of that gas transits through Ukraine. In the past, disputes between Russia and Ukraine over unpaid gas bills resulted in 18 European countries suffering either major reductions or termination of their gas supplies.
“Europe has a gas deficit and it needs to be provided somewhere,” said Osman Göksel, the project director of state-owned Botaþ, one of the companies behind the Nabucco project. “Turkey is located in proximity to all countries and can be an energy bridge between source countries and the EU.”
The Nabucco pipeline would start from the Georgian-Turkish and Turkish-Iranian borders and run 3,300 kilometers to Austria, including 2,000 kilometers through Turkey. The first construction phase is expected to start in 2011, but the project faces several obstacles before it can take off, including finding a steady and reliable supply.
The Nabucco project has pledges from Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to deliver 18 billion cubic meters of gas a year, which amounts to almost 55 percent of the pipeline’s capacity, but it needs additional gas to make the project more feasible. Though Nabucco could eventually be an energy lifeline linking Iranian and Iraqi gas reserves to Europe, energy analysts say it is not possible at the moment given the geopolitical situation.
The negotiation between Ankara and Brussels has also slowed things down. Brussels wants Turkey to be a transit country earning a transit fee, while Ankara would rather become a regional hub, collecting gas from suppliers and selling it to Europe for a variable price.
“Turkey is an important transit country but can’t miss the opportunity,” said a company representative from RWE Supply and Trading.
The project also increasingly faces competition from alternatives, including the new Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnection project, signed by the three countries in April, which would effectively set forth modalities to export gas to the rest of the EU via Romania.
“Azerbaijan is in a strategic location for oil and gas, not only in products but also in terms of services. Times are always changing and one needs to capture the zeitgeist,” said Valeh Aleskorov, the deputy president of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan.
The EU also decided earlier this year to support South Stream, a gas pipeline project backed by Russia’s Gazprom and Italy’s ENI, which aims to pump Russian gas under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and then onto other European countries.
According to comments by EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger in March, Nabucco and its partners needed to make a decision by autumn on whether to go forward or use the money for other projects.
