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RWE 'to join Nabucco fold'



By Upstream staff 

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has given the nod to Germany's RWE becoming the sixth partner in the European Union-backed Nabucco pipeline project, an official at the prime minister's office said today.

The official was speaking to Reuters news agency.

A decision on RWE's partnership was also due this week from Turkish state pipeline company Botas, a stakeholder in the Nabucco project, a Reuters report said.

The €5 billion ($7.4 billion) Nabucco project - designed to pass via Turkey and the Balkans to Austria - is a key plank of the EU's plans to reduce its dependence on Russian gas imports.

But several delays have hampered the pipeline, including the selection of a sixth partner.

Turkey had indicated previously that it backed RWE over Gaz de France as the sixth partner after France passed a bill making it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered a genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks in 1915-16.

Ankara denies that the killings were a systematic genocide.

On Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin signed with Bulgaria an agreement securing the new EU member's participation in the rival €10 billion South Stream pipeline project, highlighting delays on the Nabucco project.

The Nabucco consortium is equally owned by oil and gas companies in the transit countries - Austria's OMV, Hungary's MOL, Romania's Transgaz, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz and Turkey's Botas.

Turkey has delayed its selection of a sixth partner in the consortium while settling administrative issues at Botas.


Tuesday, 22 January, 2008, 11:05 GMT  | last updated: Tuesday, 22 January, 2008, 12:10 GMT

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