There was consensus among energy market pundits that Iran was advertently kept off the list of the invited nations due to its deep clashes and adversity with the US, especially over its uranium enrichment program, and having US support for the project was vital to make it an effective alternative to Russia's pipelines.
Due to this policy of avoiding vexing the US by posing together with Iran, the Nabucco partner countries opted to put distance between themselves and the recalcitrant Middle Eastern nation, at least in appearance. However, some Nabucco officials claim that the agreement signed by the prime ministers of Turkey, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania last week in a glamorous ceremony still included Iran, hidden in some articles. Iran's exclusion had caught international energy market analysts by surprise since without the vast resources of Iran, Nabucco's target quantities would be extremely difficult to achieve.
Speaking to Today's Zaman on the condition of anonymity, Nabucco officials said the final decision on Iran will be shaped by international developments.
Section Eight of Article 2 of the agreement defines the Initial Entry Points as "the starting points of the Nabucco Project at any three points on the eastern or southern land borders of the Republic of Turkey as selected by Nabucco International Company, and, subject to agreement by the Nabucco Committee in consultation with Nabucco International Company, any other point at the eastern or southern Turkish border. The exact location of the Initial Entry Points at the respective borders is subject to the standard permitting and related authorization procedures."
This article, officials say, points to Iran in its mention of three, plus one optional, entry points but avoidance of naming them. A Nabucco official said this sentence was intentionally devised to let Iran later in the project, but it used the expression of "entry point" instead of "supplier country" to dodge alluding to Iran's potential inclusion.
The 3,300-kilometer gas pipeline project will have a potential capacity of 31 billion cubic meters of gas annually starting from 2015 and is expected to cost $11 billion.
Although it has been officially invited to be a supplier for the pipeline several times, Russia has clearly rejected joining the project and instead has accelerated the construction of a new alternative route to transport its resources to Europe. Russia has also explored striking gas purchase deals with several potential Nabucco suppliers around the Caspian Sea. Iraq, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Egypt and Syria are so far the only countries that have pledged to pump gas to Europe via Nabucco.
The state-owned Turkish Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) currently has pipelines for gas from Iran and Azerbaijan but must construct new pipelines to access the resources of Iraq and Egypt.
Russia has the world's largest natural gas reserves, with 47.65 trillion cubic meters of proven reserves. Iran comes second with 28.13 trillion cubic meters of gas beneath its soil, and then come Qatar and Saudi Arabia, with 25.36 trillion cubic meters and 7.7 trillion cubic meters of reserves, respectively.
The idea that Nabucco is destined to arrive stillborn without the inclusion of major gas providers like Iran has been backed by the statements of Nabucco officials and of partner countries. None of them have publicly ruled out Iran as a gas supplier to the pipeline so far; in fact, there have been numerous remarks claiming the contrary. For example, in an interview with Today's Zaman last week, after the agreement was signed, Reinhard Mitschek, the managing director of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International, said that Nabucco would not exclude any potential source and will be open for the transportation of any gas meeting quality requirements from every potential gas supplier, including Iran and Russia.
“Nabucco has never, ever excluded any source. Bottom line, we have to buy the gas. The national gas companies will evaluate the political aspect, the commercial aspect, the technical aspect and then they will decide to buy gas from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Iraq, Iran and Russia,” said Mitschek.
Due to this policy of avoiding vexing the US by posing together with Iran, the Nabucco partner countries opted to put distance between themselves and the recalcitrant Middle Eastern nation, at least in appearance. However, some Nabucco officials claim that the agreement signed by the prime ministers of Turkey, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania last week in a glamorous ceremony still included Iran, hidden in some articles. Iran's exclusion had caught international energy market analysts by surprise since without the vast resources of Iran, Nabucco's target quantities would be extremely difficult to achieve....
Sunday, 21 March 2010
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/nabucco-needs-iran-and-iraq-1924612.html
"In a few years, when the Iran and Iraq situation is more stable politically, we will be able to implement the Nabucco project speedily," he said.
It has been announced at least since 1998 that regime change in Iran is a prerequisite to EU energy security....
Austrian President highlighted the existence of barriers to the Turkmen gas to Europe....
| On October 13, Ashgabat held talks with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and Federal President of Austria Heinz Fischer , located in Turkmenistan on an official visit. | |
| During the meeting the Turkmen president said his country is ready to help the EU to start developing the legal framework for the delivery of Turkmen energy resources to Europe. ”It is a special working group with participation of experts and energy structures, interested parties” – he said, emphasizing that Turkmenistan set to a constructive dialogue with Europe in energy. In turn, Heinz Fischer said that Turkmenistan – “an important provider country, Europe – a reliable consumer.” According to Fisher, it is necessary to combine received from the Turkmen side, supply and demand from the EU on mutually beneficial terms. He also noted that at a time when European countries refuse to use nuclear energy, the need for the supply of natural gas increases. Austrian President also acknowledged the fair conditions of Turkmenistan put forward the sale of natural gas in its neighborhood and the world price. ”Of course, there are obstacles along the way, but certain efforts, we will overcome all these obstacles and eliminate them,” – said the Austrian president. In Turkmenistan, President of Austria came from Baku, where he also held talks at the highest level. In contrast, Berdymukhammedov, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyevgave no clear answer for the project Nabucco, stating that it would be to choose the most viable option for his country between the pipeline and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline project of Turkey-Greece-Italy, said, “Nezavisimaya Gazeta”. Among the documents signed by the official visit of President of the Republic of Austria to Turkmenistan, only one directly related to energy cooperation. This is – “the Turkmen-Austrian memorandum of understanding on intensifying cooperation in the field of energy.” In addition, signed an agreement on air transport cooperation program for 2012 between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan and the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs of Austria, a memorandum on cooperation in education, a memorandum of understanding in the field of standardization and other documents... The Georgian feeder is for the Azeri/Caspian gas.... What's described are the transit countries.... No doubt, they will also be users, but Germany will be largest consumer of the gas. France is not part of the consortium. France Total has a Shah Deniz gas field that will be a supplier but on the receiving in they are involved in South Stream. France essentially opted out of Nabucco when they recognized Armenian genocide because Nabucco runs through Turkey. Therefore France can't take over their share . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabucco_pipeline We must admit that - without the breakup of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, without 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq - the Nabucco project would not be possible. In the U.S., we were raised on the theory of the Russian quest for a warm water port. In the future, the historians will eventually recognize this period of conflict Western Europe's quest for southern gas. HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW!!! Nabucco = Nebuchadnezzar II, the Babylonian king Nabucco Pipeline = the phallus of Europe sticking into the rear of Iraq. Shock and awe was a Holy Roman Empire 2.0 orgasm. ..... About the division in Germany which is leaning more anti-Nabucco than pro... Brand new Zio-WSJ commentary about Germany and RWE being more AGAINST Nabucco than pro - again, such things strongly argue against your notion that Germany is fighting some kind of oil and gas wars in the Middle East so they can get Nabucco...not so. Germany's Bayerngas GmbH has started negotiations with the Nabucco consortium to become the second German company..... Schroeder is one of those formidably flexible political whores who was for everything before he was against it. Yes, he signed on with Nord Stream (a Russian Gazprom project), BUT do not forget that Schroeder is first and foremost a Bilderberger whose heart beats for the Elders of Zion and their bankers and that his loyalties to Russia are merely rented out to Russia for this energy project, something for which he has been severely criticized by fellow Bilderbergers and which he at times seemed to want to re-think as evidenced by his flip-flopping comments over the years. Notably, he was Chancellor during the Iraq invasion and opposed Iraq war and the oil-mongering there - perhaps because he was then already in bed with Gazprom? Interesting info in various links here: The Great Pipeline Opera A classic example of Schroeder flip-flops of alternating between his post-2004 employer Gazprom and his political alliance with the Bilderbergers who back Nabucco: Schroeder says Nabucco needs Iran gas Gazprom at times seemed much stronger - Soros swiftly undermined Russia and gazprom with the Orange Revolution which might as well be the OSI-funded Pipeline Revolution in which with the Soros-bought candidate won and began massive sabotage of Russian Nord Stream-designated transit routes through Ukraine - as Joschka Fischer began pimping Nabucco simultaneously. Then it seemed for a couple of years that Nabucco would win the soap opera and was about to start building its pipeline starting 2013 - a game-changer this year was Merkel after Fukushima before her wobbly electorate being forced to take pious new no-nuke celibacy vows and ending the nuclear era in Germany - immediately, the concern arose that the less-productive Nabucco would not deliver enough gas as the Nord Stream-Gazprom delivery potential was larger and Germany going nuke-free meant - let's stick with Gazprom and Russia after all coz they can deliver and that Nabucco thing is expensive as hell, 2017 completion with exploding construction cost putting it impractically out of reach while Gazprom is pretty much ready to go and able to deliver far more gas with the under-sea Baltic pipeline monster they are constructing. Stay tuned for the final outcome as the battle still rages on... So far, that Gazprom and Nord Stream and South Stream Russian side seems to be winning as of right now - so we are back to the original position which says that Germany is far more interested in Russia's energy than anything from the ME. My original point was - they are not war-mongering for oil and Germany publicly during Iraq war drum beats actually fought a battle against the ME invasions for the first years and they are for decades now shopping primarily in Russia for their energy needs - their flirtation with the Zionist oil-mongering was never the dominant political drift. Not enough to cause Germany to support any military democratization of oil fields anyway.... I understand Bayerngas is shopping for a contract with Nabucco right now - they are also competing as smallest of the large shareholders...the debate is whether they will be #6 or #7 of the Nabucco profiteers - they were slated as #6 but this may change since France is in on the Nabucco deal whether Turkey likes France or not...that was my point above. Germany is far more invested in Gazprom's Nord Stream - look below - the partners/investors to the Russian project are almost all German - Wintershall, BASF, E.ON, GasUnie...all German companies whereas Germans are the smallest of the profiteers of Nabucco...Nord Stream 101 Of course, they understand business and will support whichever side wins if they want oil and gas in the end....but Germany's heart to this day belongs to the Russian pipeline projects more than any Nabucco project but they will support Nabucco if the Zio-pipeline with gas/oil from Iraq, Azerbaijan and all the Zio Empire/Soros-controlled ex-USSR anti-Russia countries wins. Again, my point all along was - Germany is leaning traditionally and also to this date far more toward Russian energy supplies than anything US-UK-Israel steals in the ME, underscoring my repetitive point that Germany was never a primary warmonger in the ME for oil but is constantly dragged along in these wars as they, too, are controlled by the flaming Zios.... | |
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