Gazprom Chief Says Nabucco Pipeline Unlikely.

Gazprom CEO Miller was on May 24 quoted as telling journalists in Vienna that it was unlikely the planned 30 BCM/y Nabucco gas pipeline project bound for Europe from the Caspian region and the Middle East (Iran) will be realised. He said: "we see no [financial/political] resources for [the Nabucco project] and no [gas] reserves for it either".

Miller said while his comments "should not be seen as a threat to any particular project", he stressed that the focus should be placed on "developing new gas transport capacities from Russia"- which, he said, was already being addressed.

Heinz Hilbrecht, the European Commission's director for conventional energy reserves, on May 23 said Nabucco was one of the Commission's four priority projects in the energy sector. Hilbrecht said the Commission would be appointing a co-ordinator in the second half of 2007 to speed up the realisation of these projects. Austrian oil-and-gas giant OMV AG plays a leading role in the consortium currently planning the Nabucco pipeline and recently confirmed its commitment to the project.