BERLIN, July 13 (UPI) -- Uncertainties in the Nabucco gas pipeline for Europe could push German energy company RWE to play a role in Russia's South Stream project, analysts said.
Russian energy monopoly Gazprom is rumored to be in talks with RWE to join the South Stream pipeline.
Russia aims to diversify its transit options to Europe with the South Stream pipeline, which would carry as much as 2.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas each year through the Balkans to southern Europe.
RWE, however, is already a partner in the Nabucco project, a European pipeline meant to break the Russian grip on the European energy sector. The proposed 2,500-mile pipeline will run from Azerbaijan to Austria via Turkey and would carry 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year to Europe.
Graham Freedman, an energy analyst at London consulting company Wood Mackenzie, told German newspaper Deutsche Welle that RWE's departure could ruin the chances for Nabucco.
"RWE was brought into the consortium originally as a large aggregator of gas -- a big utility based in Germany, which is effectively the end point for Nabucco," he said.
For her part, Claudia Kemfert, an analyst at the German Institute of Economic Research, told the newspaper that South Stream may be a safer bet because of supply concerns for Nabucco.
"Nabucco has a lot of uncertainties," she added.
Deutsche Welle said officials at RWE declined to comment, adding only that Nabucco is the best option "at the moment."
