Nabucco pipeline gas expected to reach Europe by 2013

Ankara: The Nabucco natural gas pipeline project, aimed at diversifying natural gas supplies to Europe, will deliver its first gas to Europe by 2013, the project's managing director Reinhard Mitschek said yesterday.

Mitschek also said that gas from Iran could be carried through the Nabucco pipeline if there was sufficient demand, despite protests from the United States, locked in a political dispute with the country.

"If the demand comes from European buyers, we will bring Iranian gas to Europe through the Nabucco," Mitschek told a conference in Ankara.

Capacity

The 4.6 billion euro ($7.27 billion) pipeline is expected to carry 21 billion cubic metres annually from the Caspian region to European consumers in order to lessen Europe's dependence on Russian gas.

But finding supplies in the Caspian region have been problematic, and the United States has protested calls from Turkey for Iranian supplies to be included in the 3,300 kilometre pipeline.

The US has no diplomatic relations with Iran.

Until the addition of RWE early last month, the Nabucco consortium was equally owned by oil and gas companies in the transit countries - Austria's OMV, Hungary's MOL, Turkey's Botas, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz and Romania's Transgaz.