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Turkey has not given up on a demand to use 15% of the gas pumped through the planned Nabucco pipeline, but hopes to reach an agreement with European governments in June, Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said today.
Turkey's claims on Nabucco gas have caused much rife among the consortium, which aims to build the 31 billion cubic metre gas pipeline by 2014 to help relieve Europe's reliance on Russian natural gas supplies.
"We haven't given up on the demand to take 15% of the gas that will be carried by the Nabucco pipeline; it's still being discussed," Reuters quoted Yildiz telling reporters late last night.
His comments come a week after Nabucco consortium boss Reinhard Mitschek told Reuters the 15% demand was no longer on the negotiating table.
Turkey has said the gas would be used to meet domestic demand or for re-export.
Turkey's withdrawal of the 15% demand would give a much-needed boost to the Nabucco project, with which the rival Russian-backed South Stream pipeline is competing to feed growing energy needs.
European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs told Britain's Guardian newspaper last month that Turkey had already dropped its demand for the 15%.
"The negotiations continue and we will not make any comment until they are concluded," European Commission spokesman Ferran Tarradellas Espuny said today.
After transit agreements are signed Nabucco can focus on more concrete measures such as financing and the securing of gas.
The Nabucco consortium, which has had trouble securing gas supplies, is eyeing an Iraqi Kurdistan plan to export gas from the autonomous region through the pipeline earlier this month, although the central government rejected the scheme.
Turkey also said it is working to buy more gas from Azerbaijan, and that it has submitted a new price offer in contract negotiations that will be assessed by both sides in the coming months.