The Three P’s of Pipeline Public Relations
A discussion of the relationship between the EU backed Nabucco pipeline and the Gazprom led South Stream pipeline, often comes with served with a large dose of posturing, positioning, and in what harkens back to the days of the Cold War, propaganda.
Officially, both South Stream and Nabucco take pains in outlining that they neither are competitors nor mutually exclusive pipeline projects.
Unofficially, the below article from the Voice of Russia, the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service, tells a different story:
Chances fading for Nabucco
When politics meddles in business, one should not expect anything good to happen.
Trying to isolate Iran, the West decided not to source gas from the country, though originally it had been planned to use the Iranian gas in Nabucco pipeline. The sides involved in the project said that it would be enough to source gas from Turkmenistan, Iraq and Azerbaijan, though not a single contract has been signed between them so far. Mr. Gennady Shmal, President of the Union of Oil and Gas Producers of Russia, doubts that the Nabucco shareholders can rely on gas supplies from these countries.
Azerbaijan lacks gas to fill the Nabucco pipeline as it is obliged to sell gas to Turkey, Georgia and have something for domestic use. Turkmenistan has built a gas pipe to China and plans to boost gas supplies. In other words, there are no resources for the Nabucco pipeline, and they won`t do without gas from Iran. And taking into account relations with Iran, I think the project has very few chances for implementation.
From the very start, the Nabucco project was politicized for it was aimed at building a gas pipeline from the Caspian region and the Middle East to Europe bypassing Russia, and was viewed as a major rival to the Russia-backed South Stream project. But the plan did not work. More states are joining the South Stream project, its implementation is going to be launched this autumn. And everything is clear about this project: resources, consumers and investors.
At the latest meeting of shareholders, when it was decided not to buy gas from Iran, Turkey was named among possible suppliers for the Nabucco, despite the fact that this country lacks enough gas to meet its domestic demands.
Turkey is purchasing gas from foreign countries, Iran being among them. So, the question is which resources Turkey will use to become a gas exporter. And this is when Iran again comes to mind. This spring Tehran decided to build its own gas pipeline from the Persian coast to the Turkish border. Will Ankara dare to resell Iranian gas as if it was its own? Experts believe the question should be formulated in a different way: is there any sense in the Nabucco project if Europe’s energy demand will be fulfilled by the South Stream?
Source: The Voice of Russia