Many twists and turns still to come for the Nabucco pipeline (Comment)

From Baku in Azerbaijan to Baumgarten an der March in Austria is some 2,700km as the crow flies. But no bird would follow the convoluted route of the Nabucco pipeline which is intended to connect the two energy centres when it is completed in 2014.

The gas pipeline – agreement for which was finally signed at a multi-national summit in the Turkish city of Erzerum last week – twists and turns so violently that its final length will end up closer to 4,500km. Just as many deviations and diversions are likely in the face of the complex political and economic obstacles to the arrival of central Asian gas in European markets.

The Erzerum deal was backed by Turkey and the four other countries through which Nabucco will pass – Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania. It will be 50 per cent funded by the EU, with the balance coming from energy companies in those countries and in Germany. At a total cost of €8 billion (Dh41.5bn), it is the EU’s largest single energy infrastructure commitment, and, for geopolitical reasons, also has the backing of the USA and other western countries.