Iranian gas for Nabucco may be considered only after a solution about Iran’s uranium enrichment issue is found, EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said in an interview with New Europe.

“No, the European Commission at this stage has no relations with Iran because I believe for Iran, but also for EU itself, you need to resolve the main issue and the main issue is uranium enrichment. It wouldn’t be fair towards Iranians and it wouldn’t be fair towards our citizens,” he said.

The EU Energy Commissioner said there have been some positive developments in EU-Russia energy
dialogue. Speaking of the impacts of South Stream on Nabucco, he said that they are different projects.

“Russia wishes to supply gas to the European markets. We understand its wish to diversify routes. What concerns Nabucco, it is our desire to diversify and also our action to get gas from Azerbaijan, from Turkmenistan, from Iraq, from Egypt,” he said.

South Stream is a pipeline to for transit and supply of natural gas to Balkan and other countries of Europe from Russia via Black Sea.

The Nabucco gas pipeline will ensure the gas delivery via the Mediterranean and Caspian Sea to Europe via Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Austria. Nabucco will transport gas from Azerbaijan and Central Asia to the EU. The gas from Central Asia to Nabucco may be delivered via the planned Tran-Caspian pipeline. The Trans-Caspian gas pipeline will extend to Azerbaijan, where the gas reserves are expected to comprise 6trln cu m, from the Caspian coast of Kazakhstan or Turkmenistan.

The Mediterranean gas from Azerbaijan to the end of the Nabucco pipeline is delivered via the currently existing South Caucasus gas pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum).

With regards to Turkmen gas, Piebalgs said that There is the perception that there is a lot of gas. Definitely nobody knows exactly how much it is.