Monday May 5, 05:30 PM
EU rules out linking Russia up to Nabucco pipeline
BRUSSELS (AFP) - The European Commission ruled out on Monday the possibility of linking Russia up to the Nabucco gas pipeline, stressing that Europe would stick to its aim of diversifying EU supplies.
Nabucco, which is supposed to supply the bloc with gas from the Caspian Sea region by 2012-2013 while bypassing Russia, lies at the heart of the European Union's diversification strategy.
"Russia is working with its own project, South Stream," EU Energy Commissioner Andris Pielbalgs told reporters hours after meeting Russian Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko.
"They have never expressed any wish to join Nabucco," Pielbalgs said. "We should not ask Russia to join a project which they have never shown interest to join."
He said there were currently no discussions between Russia's Gazprom and the Nabucco consortium and "we should not speculate on issues that are not on the agenda.
"Safety and security in energy is in diversity," he added.
EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner also excluded the possibility of linking Russia up to the Nabucco network.
"It's of high strategic interest and importance that we keep to our strategic goal of diversification, not just other resources but also other pipelines," she said, announcing that Egypt would contribute some two billion cubic metres of gas per year to the pipeline from 2010.
"Russia will always be an important supplier but we also have big countries around that have potentially very big reserves and they need to develop their reserves," she said.
The consortium behind Nabucco has struggled to get construction underway in the absence of enough investors amid fears that the EU will not find the 30 billion cubic metres of gas per year necessary for it to be viable.
Against that backdrop, former head of the International Energy Agency Claude Mandil said in April that Russia should be associated with Nabucco, which enjoys US backing.
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