Romania Says Will Not Drop Nabucco Gas Pipeline Project in Favour of South Stream – Media

Russian daily Kommersant reported earlier this month that Gazprom and Transgaz had discussed at a meeting on October 17 the possibility to replace Bulgaria with Romania as partner in the South Stream project. Transgaz had later denied Kommersant's report.

Basescu spoke in the wake of Wednesday's meeting of representatives of Russian gas giant Gazprom with officials of Romanian gas pipeline operator Transgaz and gas producer Romgaz, in which, Gazprom said, Romania's transit capacities in connection with the South Stream gas pipeline project had been discussed. Last week Romanian Finance and Economy Minister Varujan Vosganian said that the country was ready to back the South Stream, if invited.

"Those who think that they can twist Bulgaria’s arms, if such a game exists, by pretending they want the South Stream through Romania, consider us naive," Mediafax quoted Basescu as saying late on Thursday.

Basescu also said he has given no mandate to anyone to negotiate for a possible participation of Romania in the South Stream project.

He added that Romania will respect its commitments towards Europeans with Nabucco remaining the country's priority in the gas sector.

The multi billion euro Russian-led South Stream is a joint project of Gazprom and Italian oil and gas company Eni. The pipeline is projected to carry some 30 billion cubic metres of Russian gas annually via Bulgaria and Serbia to help meet rising demand in Europe.

Romania is partner in the Nabucco pipeline designed to carry 31 billion cubic metres of Caspian natural gas to Europe. Nabucco is a key project of the European Union, also backed by the U.S., to supply Azeri gas to Europe as an alternative to Russian supplies.