NetrootNews

The unity of purpose displayed by European countries after the Russian-Ukraine gas disagreement in December has dissipated. Readers may remember European vows to diversify natural gas supplies to prevent “political” gas shortages in the future. European Commission Chief Jose Manuel Barroso called the crisis unacceptable; German President Angela Merkel warned of consequences. Among other plans, much attention was centered on the Nabucco Pipeline, a

natural gas pipeline that will transport natural gas from Turkey to Austria, via Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary. It will run from Erzurum in Turkey to Baumgarten an der March, a major natural gas hub in Austria. This pipeline is a diversion from the current methods of importing natural gas solely from Russia. The project is backed by some of the European Union states and the United States.

The project has been plagued with problems from the start and, according to experts, those problems remain. Those problems include filling the pipeline to full capacity, US sanctions on Iran, and Turkey’s occasional politicization of the project. But there is a bigger structural issue at play, one of power politics. The Western European countries like Italy, France, and Germany, more able to match Russian geopolitical power, are more concerned with the unreliability of gas transit countries than with the problem of dependence on Russian gas. These countries oppose EU financing for Nabucco and are pursuing projects which bring gas to Europe while bypassing former Soviet states.

Turkey’s objective with regard to project participation is to become an energy hub for Europe. They are less concerned with the origin of natural gas pumped into the pipeline, even suggesting recently that Nabucco be filled with Russian gas to make up for any Turkish production shortages.