BBN: Post-Nabucco options for Central and Southeastern Europe

The demise of the Nabucco-West gas pipeline project leaves Romania and Hungary dependent on Russian gas imports, and scrambling for diversification solutions that variously look sub-optimal or doubtful. Conversely, the go-ahead to the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project inspires some hopes for trickle-down supplies of natural gas in the Adriatic seaboard countries of Albania, Montenegro and Croatia. Whether Bulgaria loses outright or can mitigate the damage is far from clear, given the many external and internal variables involved in this case.

In countries without access to seaborne supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG), the post-Nabucco default options include: building inter-connector pipelines with reverse-flow capability, adding gas storage capacities, and advancing energy market integration on a regional basis, within the European Union's evolving energy market (www.naturalgaseurope, July 24, 29).

Hungary is a front-runner in this regard. The inter-connector pipeline Hungary-Croatia and the network inter-connection Hungary-Romania are already operational, with annual capacities of 6 billion cubic meters (bcm) and up to 5 bcm, respectively. The Slovakia-Hungary inter-connector (with a capacity of 5 bcm annually) is due for completion by 2015.  MORE