BUCHAREST, Romania, May 21 (UPI) -- Governments in central and southern Europe issued a joint declaration from Romania expressing support for the planned Nabucco natural gas pipeline.
The Nabucco pipeline consortium said some of its host countries expressed their support in a declaration from Romania for potential supplies for the energy markets in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
The planned Nabucco West natural gas pipeline would deliver Azerbaijan's natural gas from the Turkish border to European consumers. It's part of a network of natural gas pipelines that are meant to break the Russian grip on the regional energy sector.
Parties to the meeting in Bucharest gave potential investors a degree of predictability by backing the tax mechanisms that would ensure the pipeline's financial success, the pipeline consortium said in a statement.
Countries along the planned Nabucco route from Turkey also committed to developing the interconnections needed to supply natural gas to southern and north-central Europe.
Nabucco West is up against the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline for natural gas supplies from Shah Deniz field in the Azeri waters of the Caspian Sea. The BP-led consortium that controls the field is expected to pick from the two pipelines next month.
