Speaking to journalists following a Nabucco executives meeting, which was hosted by the state-owned Turkish Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) in Ankara on Tuesday and was also attended by Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız, Auili said two weeks ago Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev announced that he supports the project and is ready to provide gas from the Caspian basin. Talks are underway with Iraq to obtain gas from a massive gas field in northern Iraq, Auili said. He also stated that Turkmenistan is another possible source for gas for the project as the Nabucco consortium is also talking with this country. Turkmenistan’s president said he would also extend support to the project, he added. Asked about French gas company Gaz de France’s participation in the project, Auili said since Nabucco will surely develop and expand further, they are in favor of new partners, if, of course, they contribute.
The project support agreement for the Nabucco pipeline will be finished and signed by the end of this month, Yıldız said. Reinhard Mitschek, international managing director of the Nabucco pipeline project, stated that construction of the project will start in 2011 and that the pipeline will begin operating fully by 2014.
