NEWS FROM TÜRKİYE

The New Anatolian - Turkish Energy & Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler denied rumors that the chance of Nabucco project was becoming less likely, and said works of partners were going quite well. The Nabucco project is a planned 3,300 kilometres natural gas pipeline that would carry Iranian, Azeri, Kazakh, Turkmen, Egyptian and Syrian natural gas from Türkiye to Austria via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Guler, who attended a meeting of Turkish-Russian Joint Economic Commission in Moscow, said talks among the partners were going on. "We took important steps recently. We agreed with the 6th partner, Germany's RWE. Our discussions on the amount and rates of the natural gas are under way," he said. Upon questions on Russia's partnership in Nabucco project Guler said, "Such projects required detailed discussions. Our talks are going on". Guler also said Türkiye was working on several other projects, such as Arab gas to be pumped to Türkiye and Iraqi natural gas. He said Türkiye was also having talks with Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan for further energy projects. "We are planning to initiate new projects to explore oil in Türkiye. We will initiate drilling in Black Sea in 2009," he stated.