Word: nabucco
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...attempting to wean itself off its addiction to Russian gas with a new pipeline. On Monday, five European governments signed an agreement in Ankara to build the Nabucco gas pipeline, which will bring Middle Eastern and Central Asian gas to Western Europe via Turkey and the Balkans - completely bypassing Russia. (See pictures of the changing face of Europe...
...Although the 2,050-mile (3,300 km) pipeline is still at least six years away, officials hailed the "new silk road" for finally bringing some balance to the E.U.'s energy security. European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said the Nabucco project "is of crucial importance for Europe's energy security and its policy of diversification of gas supplies and transport routes...
...five countries that signed the agreement - Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria - have been working on the ambitious $11 billion Nabucco project for seven years. The development of the pipeline, which will run initially from the Turkish capital to Baumgarten in Austria, has been beset by political bickering. But if completed as planned by 2015, the line could bring up to 31 billion cu m of gas a year from the Caspian Sea and the Middle East across Turkey and into Europe. (See pictures of Obama in Europe...
...That's still only about 10% of the E.U.'s gas demand. By contrast, Russia exports 140 billion cu m of gas to the E.U. every year. But Nabucco could break Russia's stranglehold over countries that are most dependent on its gas and most vulnerable during winter cutoffs, such as Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania. That dependence has also long undermined the E.U.'s efforts to create a common market for European energy, with transparent pricing and a single negotiating stance with suppliers like Russia...
...countries freezing and factories idle. Currently, the E.U. gets more than 40% of its gas imports from just one company: Russia's giant Gazprom. In addition, almost all the gas that comes to Europe from the resource-rich Caspian flows through Gazprom's pipelines. Yet the long-planned Nabucco pipeline - designed to transport Azerbaijani, Turkmen and, maybe one day, Iranian and Iraqi gas to the E.U. through Turkey - is stuck at the planning stage...