NABUCCO gas issues

Azerbaijani Minister of Energy Natik Aliev has stated that the NABUCCO project is unrealistic at present. He says the project is facing many economic and political difficulties. It has not been decided which direction it should go in, how it will be financed, what resources should be used to fill it and so on.

Aliev says that by 2020 the Caspian region should be exporting 300 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually, but it is difficult to say how much of this will be pumped to Europe. It is difficult to estimate what price the transit countries will charge for handling the gas. Even such brotherly nations as Turkey and Azerbaijan have not reached an agreement on gas prices, so we can imagine how difficult it will be to satisfy all the transit countries.

We think that the major difficulty faced by NABUCCO is Moscow’s attitude. It is trying to prevent NABUCCO happening by exerting pressure on Azerbaijan and Central Asian countries, as NABUCCO will provide an alternative gas supply for Europe, bypassing Russia.