EU may support pipeline combination to transport Caspian gas to Europe

Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 22 / Trend V. Zhavoronkova/ The European Commission may support a combination of pipelines instead of entire one to transport Caspian gas to Europe, the Energy Department of the European Commission (EC) said. "It might be a combination of pipelines [to transport Caspian gas to Europe], but they should meet our requirements," Marlene Holzner, a spokesperson of EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, told Trend over phone from Brussels. If there are smaller pipelines, they should not have less capacity than Nabucco and should have internationally based agreement, she added. "If there are smaller pipelines, but they aimed the same purpose - to get the gas to Europe, have the same capacity with Nabucco, even if not now but in future, and have an international contract - we will welcome these pipelines," Holzner said. She added the EU strict to its strategy that it would like to have direct access to the gas in the Caspian region. "Nabucco is still our priority project but if it is not Nabucco, the other project that are also actual," Holzner said. "It is fully in line with our objectives - if it not Nabucco, it might be another pipeline, which will bring gas to Europe". Nabucco gas pipeline is one of the Southern gas Corridor projects, which is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and Middle east to the European countries. Gas to be produced during the second stage of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field development is considered as the main source for Nabucco. Nabucco's initial capacity is 31 billion cubic meters. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az