Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend / The Energy Minister of Great Britain, Malcolm Wicks, said in his interview with the Turkish TV channel CNBC-E that his country supports the project on construction of the NABUCCO gas pipeline.
The Minister said that as an important player in the energy sector, Russia will not present threats to this project. Russia currently actively lobbies the South Stream project which goes from Russia to Bulgaria via the Black Sea.
"It is needed to develop new ways to combine the sources of gas supply from Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan," he said. The NABUCCO project is aimed at supplying Iranian and Caspian gas to Europe in order to decrease dependency on Russian fuel.
The NABUCCO gas pipeline, with a length of 4,000km, will ensure gas delivery via the Mediterranean and Caspian Seas to Europe through the territories of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tbilisi, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Austria. The gas pipeline's operation will commence in 2011. The project is estimated at €5bln. NABUCCO is being developed by several companies: OMV, MOL ( Hungary), Botas ( Turkey), Bulgargaz ( Bulgaria), and Transgaz ( Romania).