Hungarian official: Nabucco pipeline needed

Budapest, January 21 (Interfax Central Europe) - The planned Nabucco natural gas transit pipeline, which would bring Central Asian gas to Europe via the Balkans and Hungary, can be implemented and operated profitably, especially if the European Union decides to back the project financially, Hungary's Nabucco commissioner Mihaly Bayer told the daily Nepszabadsag on Wednesday.

Bayer said that there will "always be demand" for gas in Europe, and European countries will always be able to afford to import gas. Citing banking executives, Bayer said that as long as gas sources for Nabucco are secured, financiers and investors would be willing to back Nabucco.

While the EU has so far provided only minimal financial support for Nabucco, Bayer said that project participants are calling for a more robust EU involvement, and will make that argument at an upcoming international conference on the Nabucco project in Budapest next week.

Hungary's top oil/gas company MOL is part of a six-member consortium of regional gas companies that is planning to build Nabucco. According to earlier estimates, the pipeline would cost EUR 7.9 bln to build, with the first gas flows likely to start in 2013.

Bayer added that Nabucco is at a "far more advanced stage" than South Stream, another alternative gas pipeline that would bring Russian gas to central and southeastern Europe bypassing Ukraine. Unlike South Stream, Nabucco already has a project company, a feasibility study, and talks with financiers are underway, Bayer noted. In addition, South Stream also promises to be more expensive than Nabucco, as part of South Stream will run under the Black Sea, Bayer added.

However, the commissioner noted that the pipeline debate is "not a zero-sum game," as Europe will eventually need both pipelines.

http://www.kyivpost.com/world/33882