Nabucco, the venture building a natural gas pipeline that will carry the fuel from the Caspian region to Europe, may pick more than one partner to join the project.
The current five partners will select ``one or two'' more companies either next month or in November, Nabucco Gas Pipeline International Managing Director Reinhard Mitschek said in an interview in Budapest today.
Adding more partners may help Nabucco in securing financing and customers for the pipeline, which is scheduled to start operation in 2012. Germany's RWE AG and Gaz de France SA are vying to join the plan to ship gas over 3,300 kilometers (2,070 miles) between the Caspian region and western Europe, helping the European Union reduce its energy dependence on Russia.
``We'll have a solution in the fourth quarter,'' Mitschek said. ``There's no final decision on'' the number of shareholders. ``There's no final decision whether we stop with six or we go to seven.''
Companies currently involved in Nabucco are Turkish state pipeline company Botas, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz AD, Romania's Transgas and Austrian and Hungarian oil companies OMV AG and Mol Nyrt.
The Nabucco pipeline would rival a natural-gas link planned by Russia's OAO Gazprom, which wants to ship more of the fuel to western Europe. The company wants to build routes under the Black and Baltic seas to reach its customers in the European Union, where gas demand is expected to double through 2030.
Kremlin Concern
Gazprom and the Kremlin view Nabucco preparations with concern, Vladimir Milov, a former deputy energy minister in Russia who is now a Moscow consultant, said in an interview. Alternate routes and diversified suppliers threaten their grip on the region's energy market, he added.
``They philosophically, mentally and physically hate competition,'' Milov said. ``They don't understand free markets. They love monopoly and control. That is their instinct.''
Russia wants to make it difficult for Nabucco to get off the ground by directing more natural gas from Turkmenistan toward Gazprom and by getting eastern European governments to commit to the use of more of its gas, Milov said.
Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, who earlier this year was criticized by the European Union for supporting Gazprom's plans, called today for faster progress on Nabucco.
``The most important thing about Nabucco is that it helps reach new sources of gas and through a new route,'' Gyurcsany said at an energy conference in Budapest. ``The task of this conference is to speed up the process, to give more momentum to quicken the financial issues.''
Hungary imports 80 percent of its gas from Russia, making it the biggest customer of Russia's Gazprom in central and eastern Europe, according to Gazprom data. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Gyurcsany agreed in February 2006 to make Hungary a hub for sending Russian gas to western Europe.
The current five partners will select ``one or two'' more companies either next month or in November, Nabucco Gas Pipeline International Managing Director Reinhard Mitschek said in an interview in Budapest today.
Adding more partners may help Nabucco in securing financing and customers for the pipeline, which is scheduled to start operation in 2012. Germany's RWE AG and Gaz de France SA are vying to join the plan to ship gas over 3,300 kilometers (2,070 miles) between the Caspian region and western Europe, helping the European Union reduce its energy dependence on Russia.
``We'll have a solution in the fourth quarter,'' Mitschek said. ``There's no final decision on'' the number of shareholders. ``There's no final decision whether we stop with six or we go to seven.''
Companies currently involved in Nabucco are Turkish state pipeline company Botas, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz AD, Romania's Transgas and Austrian and Hungarian oil companies OMV AG and Mol Nyrt.
The Nabucco pipeline would rival a natural-gas link planned by Russia's OAO Gazprom, which wants to ship more of the fuel to western Europe. The company wants to build routes under the Black and Baltic seas to reach its customers in the European Union, where gas demand is expected to double through 2030.
Kremlin Concern
Gazprom and the Kremlin view Nabucco preparations with concern, Vladimir Milov, a former deputy energy minister in Russia who is now a Moscow consultant, said in an interview. Alternate routes and diversified suppliers threaten their grip on the region's energy market, he added.
``They philosophically, mentally and physically hate competition,'' Milov said. ``They don't understand free markets. They love monopoly and control. That is their instinct.''
Russia wants to make it difficult for Nabucco to get off the ground by directing more natural gas from Turkmenistan toward Gazprom and by getting eastern European governments to commit to the use of more of its gas, Milov said.
Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, who earlier this year was criticized by the European Union for supporting Gazprom's plans, called today for faster progress on Nabucco.
``The most important thing about Nabucco is that it helps reach new sources of gas and through a new route,'' Gyurcsany said at an energy conference in Budapest. ``The task of this conference is to speed up the process, to give more momentum to quicken the financial issues.''
Hungary imports 80 percent of its gas from Russia, making it the biggest customer of Russia's Gazprom in central and eastern Europe, according to Gazprom data. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Gyurcsany agreed in February 2006 to make Hungary a hub for sending Russian gas to western Europe.
Via|Bloomberg|by Marek Miler and Balazs Penz
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