Energy officials from Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Austria and the European Commission signed on June 12 a common declaration to support the construction of the Nabucco gas pipeline, according to a statement released by Austria's economics and labor ministry.
"With today's signed common declaration, the representatives of the participating states and the European Commission have sent a clear political signal of support for the Nabucco project," said Austrian Economics Minister Martin Bartenstein, whose country holds the rotating European Union (EU) presidency.
The pipeline was initiated by the European Parliament and the European Council in June 2003. It would pump Caspian region and Middle East gas to the EU via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria and is the EU's most important energy project.
According to the statement, the 3,300-km-long pipeline has an estimated cost of 4.6 billion euros (about 5.8 billion U.S. dollars) and is scheduled to be operative in 2011. It has the capacity to transport 25 billion cubic meters of gas a year.
"The European Commission welcomes the Nabucco project and will try to help solve the technical and economic problems of transporting gas into the EU over different routes," EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said in the same statement. |
