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[turkkan]

Russia offers Turkey a role in South Stream-agencies
Wed Jul 1, 2009 1:33pm EDT Email | Print | Share | Reprints | Single Page [-] Text [+]
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MOSCOW, July 1 (Reuters) - Russia has offered Turkey a role in its South Stream gas pipeline to Europe, Russian news agencies reported on Wedneseday, marking another Russian attempt to undermine the European Union's rival Nabucco project.

Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, Russia's top energy official, told Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz that Turkey is welcome to participate in the South Stream project, which aims to transport Russian gas under the Black Sea through Eastern Europe to Austria and Italy.

"We hope that the Turkish side will look at our offer and that we will cooperate further so that our offer is more attractive and clear to our partners," Sechin told reporters in Moscow after the meeting with Yildiz, the news agencies reported.

He did not give details of what specific role Turkey could play in the planned South Stream pipeline, which in its current form does not cross Turkish territory.

Yildiz said Turkey would review all the offers on the table, but added that Nabucco and South Stream were not rivals in Turkey's understanding. "Not one of the projects are being looked at as competitors. Each one has its own course of development," he said, Interfax reported.

Sechin did not mince words, however, about the Russian offer's goal of damaging Nabucco's chances of success.

Turkey is a crucial partner in the Nabucco project, which Europe is counting on to ease its energy dependence on Russia.

Asked about the benefits of Russia's offer over Nabucco, Sechin said: "The clear economic accounting, the coordination of all the factors, and the efficiency should clearly show which project is the best," Itar-Tass news agency reported.

On Monday, Russia dealt a heavy blow to the Nabucco project by securing supplies of Azeri gas, which has been identified as the main potential source for the EU-backed pipeline. [ID:nLT104419] (Reporting by Simon Shuster; editing by James Jukwey)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

[turkkan]

It will be interesting to see how turkey responds, probably in the negative. Russia is doing everything in its power to prevent the realization of nabucco however the EU seems to want to build it at any cost to reduce dependance on russia. The ex-german foreign minister was last week appointed a consultant in the project

http://www.spiegel.de/international/eur ... 27,00.html
ISCHER GOES FOR GAS
Ex-Foreign Minister to Become Nabucco Consultant

Former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has reportedly taken a job as a consultant for the Nabucco pipeline project, which will deliver natural gas from the Caspian region to Europe. His expertise at smoothing ruffled diplomatic feathers will come in handy.



DPA
Former top German politicians have developed a thing for pipelines.

First, it was his boss, ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who followed the path from politics into the natural gas business. Now, reports indicate that former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has signed a lucrative consulting contract with the Nabucco Pipeline, a European Union backed project designed to ease the EU's dependence on Russian natural gas.
According to information obtained by SPIEGEL sister publication Manager Magazin, Fischer has joined the €7.9 billion ($11.1 billion) project as a political advisor, primarily to ensure that Turkey remains on board -- but also to manage relations with other countries affected by the pipeline, including transit countries Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.

The planned 3,300-kilometer (2,050 mile) long pipeline would also flow through Turkey on its way from the Caspian Sea region to southeastern Europe. But whereas southeastern European Union countries have been solid in their backing for the project, Ankara has often succumbed to the temptation to link ongoing European Union accession talks with its support for the pipeline. Just in January, Turkey threatened to withdraw its agreement if Brussels didn't open new chapters in the ongoing accession negotiations.

On Tuesday, the Turkish minister for EU affairs, Egemen Bagis, said that his country is interested in signing a final Nabucco agreement by the middle of July.

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Still, there are plenty of political challenges for Fischer, the former leader of Germany's Green Party, in his new job. One of the primary reasons for the Nabucco project is to reduce European Union reliance on natural gas from Russia. That, though, is something Moscow would like to prevent. Just in May, the Russian state natural gas company Gazprom signed a deal with several southeastern European countries for a rival pipeline, called South Stream, which would deliver natural gas to Europe from Central Asia.
Ironically, Fischer's new position puts him across the fence from Schröder, his former political partner from 1998-2005, when a coalition government of Schröder Social Democrats and Fischer's Greens called the shots in Berlin. Just weeks after losing his chancellor job to Angela Merkel in the 2005 elections, Schröder took a position as chairman of the board of a Gazprom consortium currently building a natural gas pipeline beneath the Baltic Sea from Russia to the northern German coast. Called Nord Stream, the 1,220 kilometer long pipeline is scheduled for completion in 2012 and is estimated to cost some €7.4 billion.

cgh -- with wire reports

[Kikapu]

Russia offers Turkey a role in South Stream-agencies
Wed Jul 1, 2009 1:33pm EDT Email | Print | Share | Reprints | Single Page [-] Text [+]
MARKET NEWS
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More Business & Investing News...
MOSCOW, July 1 (Reuters) - Russia has offered Turkey a role in its South Stream gas pipeline to Europe, Russian news agencies reported on Wedneseday, marking another Russian attempt to undermine the European Union's rival Nabucco project.

Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, Russia's top energy official, told Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz that Turkey is welcome to participate in the South Stream project, which aims to transport Russian gas under the Black Sea through Eastern Europe to Austria and Italy.

"We hope that the Turkish side will look at our offer and that we will cooperate further so that our offer is more attractive and clear to our partners," Sechin told reporters in Moscow after the meeting with Yildiz, the news agencies reported.

He did not give details of what specific role Turkey could play in the planned South Stream pipeline, which in its current form does not cross Turkish territory.

Yildiz said Turkey would review all the offers on the table, but added that Nabucco and South Stream were not rivals in Turkey's understanding. "Not one of the projects are being looked at as competitors. Each one has its own course of development," he said, Interfax reported.

Sechin did not mince words, however, about the Russian offer's goal of damaging Nabucco's chances of success.

Turkey is a crucial partner in the Nabucco project, which Europe is counting on to ease its energy dependence on Russia.

Asked about the benefits of Russia's offer over Nabucco, Sechin said: "The clear economic accounting, the coordination of all the factors, and the efficiency should clearly show which project is the best," Itar-Tass news agency reported.

On Monday, Russia dealt a heavy blow to the Nabucco project by securing supplies of Azeri gas, which has been identified as the main potential source for the EU-backed pipeline. [ID:nLT104419] (Reporting by Simon Shuster; editing by James Jukwey)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

On Monday, Russia dealt a heavy blow to the Nabucco project by securing supplies of Azeri gas, which has been identified as the main potential source for the EU-backed pipeline.

If this is true, then there goes Turkey's so called "trump card" as being a major player to help solve EU's energy problems so that she can earn some brownie points in becoming a EU member. Turkey was only going to be a transiting point anyway for the GAS to move from A to B and is not as if she had her own to sell to the EU. So, now what for Turkey, trade the “trnc” for EU membership. Maybe. ???