Germany’s Gas War? Nabucco Vs. South Stream
3/7/2009Article by Bruce Pannier for RFERL with bits of my interview on the subject:
It’s been an up-and-down year for the Nabucco natural gas pipeline.
Just as work on the long-stalled project seems set to finally begin, some shift — usually at the hand of Russian energy giant Gazprom — alters the commercial landscape and Nabucco’s chances appear to recede.
But the pipeline’s supporters have just selected a big name in European politics to help push the project toward realization — Joschka Fischer, the former head of Germany’s Green Party and the country’s foreign minister from 1998-2005.
Fischer faces some serious obstacles in jump-starting Nabucco — the would-be cornerstone in Europe’s drive to kick its Russian energy habit, which has failed to attract commitments from suppliers and consumers alike.
Not least among them is the fact that Nabucco’s rival pipeline projects have a powerful lobbyist all their own — Fischer’s former boss, ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who has spent four years on the payroll of Russian energy giant Gazprom.
