BUDAPEST, Hungary, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Europe is scrambling for alternatives to Russian natural gas as the Kremlin cuts supplies to customers who won't accept price hikes.
Two of the responses are strategic, building a pipeline and importing the commodity in a liquefied form, the Budapest Times said Monday.
One international initiative is the so-called Nabucco pipeline, a $5.4 billion venture of Turkey's Botas, Hungarian fuel firm MOL, Austria's OMV, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz and Romania's Transgaz.
The 2,000-mile pipeline will gather natural gas from Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Egypt and Syria for shipment through Turkey to Austria, via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. It is expected to be operational by 2011.
In a second response to the crisis, Hungary is working with Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Austria to create a liquefied gas pipeline from the Adriatic Sea coast. The LNG terminal would be built in Croatia and link with natural gas pipelines in southern Europe. The closest reliable supply of LNG is Algeria.
Many of the countries involved endured natural gas shutoffs when the Kremlin cut supplies to Ukraine over a failed attempt to more than quadruple the price. Moldova's gas remains shut off.
