ASTANA, Kazakhstan, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Natural gas from Kazakhstan could find its way into the planned Nabucco pipeline should new natural gas fields emerge in the country, an official said.
Azerbaijan is weighing proposals for resources from its natural gas fields from pipeline consortiums involved in the so-called Southern Corridor of transit networks. Of those, the Nabucco pipeline would be the most ambitious as it would stretch from the eastern border of Turkey to the northern border of Austria in order to deliver non-Russia gas supplies to European consumers.
Kazak Deputy Energy Minister Lyazzat Kiinov told delegates at a domestic energy conference that his government was considering designating its gas to Nabucco.
"In the future, Kazakhstan will consider joining Nabucco as a potential gas supplier if new high-potential gas fields are developed domestically and free gas volumes emerge," he was quoted by the Platts news service as saying.
Extra gas supplies aren't readily available in Kazakhstan, he said, but supplies are expected to double within the next decade.
State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan President Rovnaq Abdullayev said Baku's assessment of the projects -- Nabucco, the Interconnector Turkey-Greece, and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline -- would be finished around Oct. 20.
