The planned7.9 billion euros Nabucco pipeline would run 3,300 kilometers from to Turkey through Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and end in Austria, circumventing Russia. “We hope and expect Turkmenistan to be one of the main suppliers of gas to various markets through Nabucco,” consortium Vice President Johann Gallistl told an investors conference in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat. The remarks highlighted the crucial role that Western politicians and energy executives see the isolated Central Asian nation playing in ensuring European energy supplies over the coming decades.
Construction of a trans-Caspian pipeline could be indefinitely stalled by differences on how to divide the sea between five littoral nations, including Russia and Iran. Talks have dragged for years without an end in sight. Gallistl said alternative options included moving gas through Iran, liquefying it, and then transporting it by sea. He also suggested it might be possible to deliver gas from offshore Turkmen fields to Azerbaijan, which lies across the Caspian from Turkmenistan. Other potential suppliers for Nabucco could include Azerbaijan, Iran and Iraq, Gallistl said.
