Saturday 15 November 2008

Foreign Minister Comanescu: Romania stays resolutely engaged in Nabucco project

Romania is and stays resolutely engaged in turning to reality the project of the Nabucco gas pipeline, which is Europe's most important project for gas supply from alternative sources, Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu declared on Friday (Nov 14) at the Energy Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan.

"We have positive signals about Nabucco, from partners interested in the project, which strengthen our confidence in its robustness and economic viability," remarked Minister Comanescu, cited in a release of the Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE).

Lazar Comanescu headed the Romanian delegation to the Energy Summit in Baku, an event attended by the Presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Georgia, Ukraine and Turkey, the Prime Ministers of Estonia and Hungary, European Commissioner Energy Andris Piebalgs and the US Secretary of Energy, other EU ministers and government officials from the Pontic and Caspian regions.

Talks focused on the development of regional cooperation and the energy transit corridor linking the Caspian Sea to Europe, by the promotion of projects for the diversification of hydrocarbon sources and transport routes.

The Nabucco gas pipeline, which is supposed to run from the Caspian Sea to Europe, crossing Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria, is a project aimed at reducing European dependence on Russian giant Gazprom.
Nabucco is planned to be 3,300-kilometre (2,050-mile) long and transport 31 billion cubic metres of gas to the energy-hungry EU from the Middle East and Asia so as to reduce the bloc's reliance on Russian supplies.

The construction is scheduled to begin in 2009, with the completion date set for 2013, yet the final decision on the construction of the pipeline is due this year and provided that works begin in 2008/2009, gas might start flowing through the pipeline in 2012.

The Nabucco project was initiated by five energy companies: OMV (Austria), MOL (Hungary), Botas (Turkey), Bulgargaz (Bulgaria) and Transgaz (Romania). Germany"s RWE joined later as the sixth partner to the project that should supply gas from alternative sources in Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.

Romania to facilitate Armenia-EU action plan implementation

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said the whole scope of the Armenian-Romanian relations was discussed during the meeting with his visiting Romanian counterpart Lazar Comanescu.

“We discussed bilateral relations, specifically economic cooperation, regional issues and the ways to resolve of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict,” he told a news conference today.

For his part, Minister Comanescu said that Romania, as a member of EU and NATO, can facilitate implementation of the Armenia-EU action plan.

“To date, Armenia and Romania are developing bilateral economic cooperation within the BSEC,” he said.

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