ASSA-IRADA ,
12, February 2008

The European Commission has approved an exemption from strict competition rules for Austria's section of the NABUCCO pipeline that will take Caspian gas to European markets bypassing Russia.

The move is an apparent attempt to help the $6 billion West-backed project over a Russian-backed rival.

The Austrian section was temporarily exempted from a requirement to grant access to third parties in return for safeguards to ensure competition on that stretch of the pipeline. The conduit is to transport Caspian and Central Asian gas through Turkey to central Europe from 2012. The pipe's annual throughput capacity is estimated at 31 billion cubic meters. "The Commission decision on NABUCCO shows our support for this project, which will boost Europe's efforts to diversify our supply sources and our gas supply routes," Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said in a statement. "The project is important not only for the countries involved but will also contribute to strengthening competition and promoting security in gas supply for the European Union as a whole."

Russia instead supports a project on building the South Stream pipeline under the Black Sea bypassing Turkey to deliver Siberian gas to Europe.

The Financial Times reported that Turkey will be urged this week to give more support to the proposed NABUCCO pipeline, following what it called mounting European Union concern about Ankara's commitment to the project.

Jozias van Aartsen, the EU's co-ordinator for natural gas projects in southern Europe, will visit Ankara on Thursday to press Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to tackle some of the obstacles facing the plan.

Van Aartsen told the newspaper at the weekend: "If they are seeking a relationship with the EU, it is one of the ways to make really clear that they do want a future relationship." RWE, one of Germany's biggest energy companies, joined the NABUCCO project consortium last week.

The project, a 3,300km route to bring gas from Azerbaijan and other countries in the Caspian region, is supposed to bolster the EU's energy security by providing an alternative to Russian supplies.

Ankara has repeatedly said that it is committed to NABUCCO, and Botas, the Turkish gas company, is a member of the project consortium.

However, Turkey has failed to agree a pricing framework for the use of the pipeline, supplies from Turkey to Greece have been interrupted recently following the loss of supplies from Iran, and Ankara is resisting Gaz de France joining the NABUCCO consortium, apparently for political reasons, the report said.