UPDATE: Turkey: Trans Anadolu Pipeline Must Be Done By 2017-18
19 November 2011 - 12:52AM
Dow Jones News
Turkey and Azerbaijan's new joint transit gas pipeline project,
the Trans Anadolu, needs to be completed by 2017-2018, Turkey's
energy minister said Friday.
"It's early to talk about the cost of the new pipeline project,"
Taner Yildiz told reporters, declining to provide further
details.
Azerbaijan's state-oil company Socar said Thursday that it will
build the 16 billion-cubic-meter standalone gas pipeline across
Turkey to cater to the fast-growing economy's growing energy
needs.
The announcement surprised energy executives and politicians
involved in the European Union-backed Nabucco pipeline project,
which is slated to bring natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe
through Turkey, as a consortium of gas producers is in the final
stage of deciding a decade-long contest to build the pipeline.
Socar said Thursday that the new pipeline wouldn't mean the end
of Nabucco. However, many analysts and rivals, in particular
Russia's gas giant OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS), have long expressed
skepticism that Nabucco would get built. The 3,900-kilometre
pipeline would have a capacity of 31 billion cubic meters a year,
twice as much gas as Azerbaijan could provide. Other planned
sources, including Turkmenistan, Iran and Iraq, remain problematic
due to concerns over security and political instability.
The Nabucco consortium has repeatedly sought to dispel growing
skepticism about the pipeline's viability and the project retains
strong political support in Brussels.
The U.S., a long-time backer of Nabucco, appears to be
increasingly open to smaller-scale alternatives that would
prioritize supply to the former communist states of south east
Europe, where energy security remains a concern.
Richard Morningstar, State Department special envoy for Eurasian
energy, said Wednesday that Nabucco continues to be a "desirable"
project, but that it must be "commercially viable.
"If a smaller pipeline is chosen to ship the first Shah Deniz
gas to Europe, we believe it should provide gas to the vulnerable
countries in Europe and there should be concrete, written
guarantees that the pipeline will be expanded as more gas becomes
available," Morningstar said.
-By Yeliz Candemir, Dow Jones Newswires; +90 0212 272 92 87;
yeliz.candemir@dowjones.com
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