HotNews.ro: There is a lot of talking about Nabucco these days, especially after the signing of the contract for South Stream. Is South Stream a competitor for Nabucco in the south-eastern Europe?

Reinhard Mitschek: We know that the Russians will promote South Stream and it´s normal that countries like Bulgaria or Greece will contribute, once South Stream will be realized. But it is not a competition to Nabucco. Nabucco different gas sources than South Stream - which has Russian gas source. Nabucco has sources from Central Asia, in the Middle East and potentially -, as add on - , Russian gas. Then the projects have a different end user markets: South Stream is mainly Italy, for Nabucco is south-east Europe, Austria, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic. Due to the fact the pipeline will end up in Baumgarten, near Vienna,we can easily swap gas to the other hubs in Europe. I do not see a competition between these two projects.

HotNews.ro: Nabucco is not enough to resolve the Europe's needs for gas, to assure the European gas supply security. In the meantime, there is this fear of Russian involvement in projects like this, in the south-eastern Europe.

Reinhard Mitschek: Nabucco could transport 30 billion cubic meters of gas per year, the European consumption for 2020 is expected to be 700 billion cubic meter per year. Based on that overall consumption Nabucco will cover no more than 6-7% of the European gas consumption. That means standing alone Nabucco could not secure the security of gas supply in Europe. Therefore it´s necessary to develope additional projects, be it pipelines or LNG. This is the reason why there is no competition between Nabucco and South Stream. We don´t have to say either South Stream or Nabucco, or either Nabucco or South Stream. I think we need both.

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