Taner Yildiz: Nabucco May Take On New Partner

Turkish Minister for Energy Taner Yildiz has said that the Nabucco pipeline consortium may take on a new partner, the Trend news agency has reported.

The minister made the statement in a meeting with Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Simeon Djankov, which took place in Turkish capital Ankara today.

Mr. Yildiz acknowledged that the Nabucco pipeline had faced difficulties but said that these difficulties should not impede Nabucco's development.

"It is important that these difficulties will not hamper the implementation of the project," he said.

Despite delays and the difficulties faced by the pipeline project, progress continues to move ahead.

Today, it was reported that Bulgarian archaeologists had identified approximately 130 ancient sites along the proposed pipeline route in Bulgaria. These sites will need to be excavated before construction can go ahead on the Bulgarian section of the pipeline.

Director of the National Institute of Archaeology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Lyudmil Vagalinski said that the archaeological surveying had covered an area of 420 kilometres in Bulgaria, necessitating excavations. However, he said, the archaeologists' findings could not influence the actions of the consortium, but could only indicate the findings to them.

The Nabucco pipeline is one of the pipelines vying to transport gas from the Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan. The project is planned to carry 31 billion cubic metres of gas annually through Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania, Hungary and Austria.