Nabucco praises EU declaration on Southern Gas Corridor

The joint declaration on the Southern Gas Corridor signed by the
European Commission and Azerbaijan will provide a firm basis for
Azerbaijani gas supplies, an official statement by Nabucco Gas
Pipeline International says, Trend reports.

The managing director of the consortium, Reinhard Mitschek, said that
the document will secure supplies to Europe and strengthens ties with
Azerbaijan as a strategic partner.

Mitschek also noted that a joint inter-government declaration was
signed in July 2009.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the President of the European
Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, signed a joint declaration on the
Southern Gas Corridor on January 13.

The Southern Corridor is a priority energy project for EU, aimed at
diversifying the routes and energy sources, improving the energy
security of the EU. The Southern Corridor projects includes Nabucco
gas pipeline, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the White Stream,
ITGI (gas pipeline Turkey-Greece-Italy).

Nabucco involves transport of gas from the Caspian region and the
Middle East to EU countries. The pipeline is worth approximately 7.9
billion euro and will start construction in 2012. The first supplies
are expected in 2015.

OMV (Austria), MOL (Hungary), Bulgargaz (Bulgaria), Transgaz
(Romania), Botas (Turkey) and RWE (Germany) are participants of the
project. Each member has a 16.67% share.