Bulgaria wants to revive Nabucco, Azerbaijan says pipeline name ‘not important’

Hosting the President of Azerbaijan on an official visit to Bulgaria on 4 March 2015, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said his country wanted to revive the Nabucco pipeline project. President Ilham Aliyev stated one should focus on bringing more Azeri gas to Europe, not on the name of the future pipeline.

Nabucco was originally a US project to bring gas to Europe from sources other than Russia, an idea strongly resented by Moscow. Gazprom partially put forward the South Stream project with the purpose of rendering Nabucco irrelevant, as it would bring gas through largely the same route to the same gas hub of Baumgarten, in Austria.

Both Nabucco and South Stream were designed to pass through Bulgarian territory. However, in 2013, Azerbaijan chose another pipeline project, the Trans-Adriatic pipeline TAP, which was designed to bring the Azeri gas from Turkey via Greece and Albania to Italy.

The Nabucco project was then shelved. The South Stream was affected by the worsening relations between Russia and the European Union.

EurActiv reported in June 2015 on the possibility of the Nabucco project to be revived, this time to bring gas from Russia instead of Azerbaijan's gas fields as originally inteded.

ESO: Background information: Šefčovič gives his blessing to Southern Gas Corridor http://www.europeansources.info/record/sefcovic-gives-his-blessing-to-southern-gas-corridor/

EurActiv, 02.06.15: Serbia to diversify its energy suppliers http://www.euractiv.com/sections/enlargement/Serbia%20to%20diversify%20its%20energy%20suppliers-315069

EurActiv, 15.06.15: Nabucco 2.0 to transport Russian gas? http://www.euractiv.com/sections/energy/nabucco-20-transport-russian-gas-315392

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