Kazakhstan unlikely to participate in Nabucco gas project - official

energy

Kazakhstan unlikely to participate in Nabucco gas project - official

By SRI ⋅ June 26, 2009 ⋅

(SRI) - Kazakhstan will be unable to participate in the Nabucco gas pipeline project because the country does not possess sufficient gas supplies, a government official said on Thursday.

Kazakh Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Aset Magauov said at the NATO-sponsored Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council in Astana that the project was currently not economically viable for Kazakhstan.

According to Magauov, Kazakhstan’s current gas priorities are the so-called pre-Caspian pipeline to Russia and the Central Asia - China pipeline.

“We have begun two large-scale projects. We intend to export 10 billion cubic meters of gas in the pre-Caspian Gas Pipeline. The second project is with China,” Kazakhstan Today quoted Magauov as saying.

Nabucco, backed by the European Union and the United States, would transport Central Asian gas via Azerbaijan and Turkey to Europe, bypassing Russia.

The fate of Nabucco has long been questioned, however, in face of fierce opposition by Russia and the unwillingness of Kazakhstan and other Central Asian states to commit to supplying gas to the pipeline.

Kazakhstan’s proven natural gas reserves have amounted to 1.82 trillion cubic meters (tcm) as of January 1, 2009, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2009.