by Peter Pogany The hardship imposed on Central and Southeastern Europe by the delivery hiatus of Russian gas via Ukraine has unleashed a free flow of speculations about the future of the Nabucco pipeline project. Nabucco could bring Europe a modicum of badly needed independence from Russia’s state-dominated Gazprom, the world’s largest gas company. It could also provide some protection against being held hostage by the endless wrangling between Moscow and Kiev over prices, pilfering, and unpaid bills.
To seal the deal and make final commitments, a summit is scheduled in Budapest on January 26-27, with the participation of consortium members (Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Turkey) and potential suppliers (Azerbaijan, Egypt, Iraq, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan), the European Union (as represented by the Czech Republic, which is currently filling the role of the Union’s rotating presidency, and the EU energy commissioner); the Council of Europe and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Invitations have also been extended to the United States, Russia, and Georgia -- a temporary transit country for Caspian gas shipped to Turkey.
While the most recent bout between Russia and Ukraine appears to raise Nabucco’s prospects, other news and the entire constellation of circumstances leading up to the summit are discouraging.
1 comment:
During the first four months we will pay $360 for gas. And that is exactly twice as high, than paid until now. And Timoshenko’s «about» means a kind of an average annual price. Such a convinient gap : nobody knows its size, so no one will notice, someone will grab a piece of pie from there.
Interestingly, that Timoshenko enmeshed a little in Putin patterns. «A price which will be firm throughout the year, will make $228,8 for thousand cubic meters», - she declared in the morning. And later she told about a «quater year» pattern.
http://ua-ru-news.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-price-on-russian-gas.html
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