EU MUST ACCELERATE WORK ON NABUCCO PROJECT REALIZATION: TURKISH PRIME MINISTER

The European Union must accelerate the solution of issues concerning the implementation of the Nabucco pipeline project, said the Turkish Prime Minister Rajab Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish channel CNN Turk reported.

 "Turkey is ready to assume all that fall on it in this project. If the transportation of gas will be carried out through our territory, we are ready to create a pipeline," said Erdogan.

Erdogan stressed that Turkey is not a supplier of gas to the project, it is a consumer and transit country.

The Nabucco project worth ?7.9 billion will deliver Azerbaijani and Central Asian gas to the EU. Construction of the pipeline is expected to commence in 2010. Its maximum capacity will be 31 billion cubic meters per year.  Nabucco shareholders are the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE with 16.7 percent each.