Oettinger Denies Pipeline Rivalry
European Energy Commission Guenther Oettinger says that EU's new partnerships with energy-rich Central Asian countries do not threaten Russian gas sales to Europe.
"We don't want to block South Stream", referring to the Gazprom led pipeline project planned to move Russian gas to the Balkans and Italy.
The EU is backing the Nabucco pipeline project in an attempt to reduce its reliance on imported Russian natural gas.
Russia currently provides a quarter of total EU gas supplies. Seven countries in the 27-nation EU are almost totally dependent on Russian gas.
Nabucco and South Stream have been seen as projects competing for the same supply sources.
Last month Nabucco took a big step forward when Azerbaijan pledged to export gas to the EU.
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