Richard Morningstar says "its not about Nabucco, but about ability to expand the pipe"

U.S. Secretary of State Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy, Ambassador Richard Morningstar said that the U.S. does not support only Nabucco, but the entire South Energy Corridor.

"We support not only Nabucco, but also the entire South Energy Corridor - a series of pipelines that will be required to deliver Caucasian and Central Asian gas to Europe via Turkey," he said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper.

The Southern Corridor is a priority energy project for the EU aimed at increasing energy security, and includes projects such as White Stream, Nabucco, ITGI and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline.

Morningstar said EU companies must make a commercial decision about which project is the most reasonable and beneficial.

"We would have preferred Nabucco, but that does not mean it will be implemented first," he said.

Morningstar added that the consortium developing Shah Deniz will soon make a decision about the direction of its gas sales.

"This could be Nabucco, ITGI or another project," Morningstar said. "The main thing is to have the ability to expand the pipe."

"In any case, the first pipeline will not transport very large volumes of gas," he said. "However, it must have the potential for expansion if supply volumes increase. And this will surely happen. Therefore, the infrastructure should be prepared now."

Morningstar named Iraq and Turkmenistan as other gas sources for these projects. Iranian gas, he said, should not be included in any international projects until issues relating to Iran's nuclear program have been resolved and its relations with the United States and other countries are fully normalized.

According to BP, Azerbaijan's proven gas reserves were 1.31 trillion cubic meters as of Jan. 1, with Turkmenistan's at 8.1 trillion, Iraq's at 3.17 trillion and Iran's at 29.61 trillion cubic meters.


/Trend/