July 3 (SeeNews) - The European Union said on Friday it was invited to attend the signing ceremony of an intergovernmental deal on the Nabucco gas pipeline project.
Media reports in the past week said the signing ceremony could be postponed over lack of gas to feed the pipeline and Turkish demands for domestic use and re-export of part of the transited gas. The agreement was initially due to be signed by the end of June.
"The invitation has been received," European Commission spokesman Ferran Tarradellas told a news briefing.
The deal will be signed on July 13 in Ankara, Reuters reported earlier on Friday, quoting Romania's Economy Minister Adriean Videanu.
Turkey has delayed the signing of transit agreements by demanding 15% of Nabucco's 31 billion cubic metre (bcm) capacity throughput for its domestic usage or for re-export, Reuters reported. "As far as I know, it [this 15% issue is solved, but I do not know details," Reuters quoted Videanu as saying.
Earlier this week Turkish daily Aksam reported that the signing ceremony, which according to the daily was set for July 15, may be postponed due to lack of gas to feed the pipeline as Russia has agreed to buy out the available gas from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan leaving no resources for Nabucco.
The EU-backed Nabucco is considered as rival to the South Stream gas pipeline, a joint project of Russia's Gazprom and Italy's ENI, designed to carry 63 bcm of Russian gas yearly to Austria and Italy under the Black Sea and via Bulgarian territory.
The agreement will be signed between the countries through which the pipeline will pass, as the European Commission could sign it as an observer, Tarradellas said.
The 3,300-kilometre Nabucco pipeline will start at the Georgian/Turkish and/or Iranian/Turkish border and will link the Caspian region, the Middle East and Egypt via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary with Austria and further west with Central and Western Europe.
"The intergovernmental agreement establishes the legal framework in which the pipeline could be used, so basically how the transparent and non-discriminatory conditions of the use, allocation of capacity of the pipeline, etc. are going to be regulated," Tarradellas added.
Shareholders in the Nabucco Gas Pipeline International consortium that will build and operate the pipeline are Austria's OMV, Germany's RWE, Hungary's MOL, Turkey's Botas, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz and Romania's Transgaz.
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