German Papers: Gazprom Wants to Knock Nabucco Out

German papers Handelsblatt and Die Welt write Tuesday that Russian energy giant is taking concrete steps to hinder the completion of EU gas pipeline Nabucco.

The two papers come out with materials commenting the recent move on the part of Gazprom to invite German energy giant RWE to join rival project South Stream. Up to this point, RWE is serously committed to Nabucco and a switch to South Stream is seen as posing great danger for the completion of EU project.

Handelsblatt has called Gazprom's move “Putin's immoral offer”, writing that “Behind the friendly offer are lying unfriendly calculations. Gazprom wants to eliminate a competitor in the bitter fight for future market shares in the European market of gas.”

Die Welt, on its part, comes with headlines saying that Gazprom is “driving a wedge” and “causing trouble” for Nabucco. The materials comment that the Russian company is taking advantage of lack of clarity and palpable developments on the European project.

Handelsblatt puts the events in the context of Gazprom growing “nervous” because of developments in the gas markets in the last two years involving frozen prices of gas and better opportunities for diversified deliveries to Europe, including possibilities such as liquefied natural gas and shale gas.

Those conditions endanger a “monopoly” position of Gazprom on European gas deliveries, which would be further complicated by the potential completion of Nabucco.

Handelsblatt quotes an “influential energy-manager” at RWE saying that Gazprom is trying to “blow up” the Nabucco-consortium.

The German paper further draws attention to the opportunities given by shale gas, the extraction of which has been pioneered mainly in the US. It quotes estimates of the US Department of Energy to the effect that the USA have non-conventional gas deposits to satisfy internal demand for the next 90-120 years.

Tuesday the American ambassador in Bulgaria James Warlick presented in Sofia the offer of US company Chevron to drill for shale gas in Bulgaria.

Handelsblatt recalls earlier Gazprom advances to Austrian OMV, which previously supported only Nabucco, and now is involved in both projects, saying Gazprom now wants to achieve a better result with RWE by inducing it to switch sides.

The paper adds to that context the “close friendship” between RWE CEO Jürgen Großmann and Gazprom official (and former German federal chancellor) Gerhard Schröder.

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