Shmatko: Russia won’t combine South Stream, Nabucco

Russia is not looking at the question integrating the projects to build the Nabucco and South Stream gas pipelines, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko told journalists.

Shmatko said that in the near future the sides will finish creating a project operator to build the Bulgarian part of South Stream. Shmatko mentioned that the Russian side welcomes the diversification of gas supply to European consumers. “For European consumers, the more gas the better,” the Russian minister said.

Shmatko stressed that South Stream is more competitive because all the necessary agreements have been achieved for its realization and there exists the necessary resource base for its fulfillment. “Our project seems to me the stronger one because we have both agreements and gas. And we are looking forward to when Nabucco will be able to compete with us,” he said.

The head of Italian Eni (a partner of Gazprom on South Stream) Paolo Skaroni said earlier that the projects of two gas pipelines should be united to cut costs.

The Nabucco gas pipeline project will transport gas from Caspian countries to Europe, bypassing Russia. The cost of building the 3,300 km gas pipeline is estimated at 7.9 billion euros. The members of consortium are Germany’s RWE, Austrian OMV, Turkish Botas, Romanian Transgaz, Bulgarian Bulgargaz and Hungarian MOL. Azerbaijan, Turkmenia and Iraq are viewed as possible sources of gas for the pipeline.