EU: No Plan to Merge Nabucco with South Stream

The EU has no plans to consolidate the Nabucco and South Stream pipelines, European Commission spokesperson Marlene Holzner said today in Brussels, Interfax reports.

"We are open to any opportunities to diversify gas supply routes, particularly through South Stream. But we support the Seventh Corridor and the Nabucco pipeline is one of our main tools in this regard. At the moment we do not foresee any project of this kind," Holzner said.

Holzner was responding to comments by a U.S. diplomat that the E.U. based Nabucco natural gas pipeline project and its Russian competitor South Stream could merge.

U.S. Ambassador to Italy David Thorne told Italian daily La Stampa that Italian gas giant Eni SpA, Russia's partner in the South Stream pipeline, was in favor of such a move.

"Eni has changed its approach, favoring a merger between the South Stream and Nabucco pipelines," Thorne told La Stampa, citing "many meetings" with ENI's Chief Executive Officer Paolo Scaroni in Rome and in Washington. "I would say that we are in a phase of constructive dialog."

Eni is the biggest European backer of South Stream, a pipeline project jump-started by the Kremlin to bypass traditional transit country Ukraine. Observers say South Stream was also drawn up to torpedo Nabucco, launched by Brussels to reduce Europe's dependency on Russian gas imports.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has in the past questioned whether Nabucco could be realized in an economically viable manner; people close to Nabucco have also said Russia that is pressuring potential Nabucco suppliers in Central Asia -- Russia's traditional sphere of influence -- into committing to South Stream.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Energy Commissioner Guenter Oettinger are to visit Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan this week to try to secure gas for Nabucco from the region. Consortium members are also in talks to get gas from northern Iraq.

Experts have questioned that there is supply and demand for both projects, an analysis that has resulted in what the media has termed the "pipeline war."

Source: Wire Services