Azerbaijan ready to supply NABUCCO

Azerbaijan is ready to supply 50% of its gas to the NABUCCO project. According to the Turkish Zaman newspaper Azerbaijan is very interested in this project, which is supported by Turkey, and is ready to contribute to its successful development. Zaman quoted Ali Hasanov, the Azeri Presidential Administration offcial participating in the Istanbul Eurasian summit, as saying that Azerbaijan has already taken the biggest step by promising supply and it is now up to European countries to start implementing the project.

Negotiations about further supply are still underway with Turkmenistan, but these have been delayed and there are still some problems in this direction. It was initially anticipated that the agreement to supply Turkmen gas to NABUCCO would be signed in the first half of 2008.

NABUCCO envisages supplying Europe with Caspian basin natural gas as an alternative to Russian supplies.