Gas deals needed for Nabucco, Lugar says

BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 15 (UPI) -- Washington is looking forward to gas price agreements between Turkey and Azerbaijan for the Nabucco gas pipeline for Europe, U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar said.

Ankara on Monday hosted regional delegates and supporters of the $10.3 billion Nabucco pipeline for Europe where the governments of Turkey, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania signed a milestone agreement for the project.

Backers of the project had hoped to secure firm agreements from Azerbaijan to supply gas for the ambitious project.

Lugar, a Republican and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Trend news agency in Azerbaijan he was anticipating an agreement between Turkey and Azerbaijan on the project.

"The next step in the Nabucco project might be the agreement between Turkey and Azerbaijan about the export price of the gas," he said. "The United States is deeply looking forward that agreement."

Lugar and Richard Morningstar, the U.S. special envoy for Eurasian energy, represented the United States at the signing ceremony Monday.

Europe sees Nabucco as a key to its effort to diversify an energy sector that is dependent on Russia. The pipeline could bring as much as 1.1 trillion cubic feet of gas to European customers each year when transits begin in 2014.