Iran says the Nabucco project has been stalled in the absence of any guarantee that enough gas will actually flow through the pipeline to justify the project.

Iran has announced its interest in joining the Nabucco pipeline project which would carry natural gas from Central Asia to Europe.
“Although we have not received an official proposal to join the Nabucco project, if there is an official request, we will consider it,“ said Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Reza Sheikh Attar.
The Nabucco pipeline project, valued at $12.9 billion, would link the European market with energy-rich Central Asian countries via Azerbaijan, Georgia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Hungary, Romania and Austria.
Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, and more recently Iraq, are also considered potential suppliers of natural gas through the Nabucco pipeline, with backing in particular from the US for Iraq’s involvement.
The US opposes plans to have the Nabucco pipeline supplied with natural gas from Iran, although a number of other countries, including Turkey, Switzerland and Germany, have expressed serious interest in importing gas from the Islamic Republic.
Managing Director of Iran’s National Gas Exports Company Nosratollah Seifi told IRNA that the project was already stalled in the absence of any guarantee that enough gas will actually flow through the pipeline to justify the project.
Nabucco is designed to ease Europe’s reliance on Russia by pumping Central Asian gas to Europe via Turkey.
The new route will not displace Russian energy giant Gazprom but force it to compete for an increase in consumers, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza told Reuters.
Bryza’s comment came as the chairman of Turkey’s state-controlled pipeline company, Botas, Huseyin Saltuk in April spoke of the difficulties in finding enough gas to fill the pipeline to capacity.
Expressing concern about supplying Nabucco, he suggested Iran, Iraq and Turkmenistan could join the project. Iran holds the world’s second largest gas reserves after Russia.
Bryza claimed the US supports the Nabucco pipeline as a way for Europe to help diversify supplies of natural gas, this means, new sources but not from Iran.
Backers of the project on May 29 revealed a massive increase in the estimated cost to build and operate the project to 7.9 billion euros from 4.6 billion euros.
However, Azerbaijan’s energy minister has underlined the need to connect Iranian, Russian and Azeri oil and gas pipelines to expand exports to Europe.
The connection of Iranian, Russian and Azeri conduits and the laying of the North-South pipeline will play an essential role in providing Europe’s energy needs, said Azeri Minister of Industry and Energy Natiq Aliyev on the sidelines of the 15th International Caspian Oil and Gas Conference.
Aliyev expressed Baku’s eagerness to increase oil and gas cooperation with Iran, a country which he said plays a significant role in the production and export of energy from the Caspian Sea region.
The minister said that he would discuss the terms for greater oil and gas cooperation between the two countries during his June 16 meeting with Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari.
Iran says the construction of a 7-billion-dollar pipeline to transfer the country’s natural gas to Europe will begin this year.
Feasibility studies on Iran’s role in the pipeline project are almost complete, announced Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Seyyed Reza Kasaeizadeh.
The pipeline will be linked to the European Union’s flagship gas pipeline Nabucco and will carry gas from Iran’s giant South Pars gas field to Europe.
The Nabucco pipeline aims to diversify natural gas supplies to energy-hungry Europe and, once constructed, will carry 110 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.
Many energy analysts and officials describe Iran as fundamental to the gas pipeline project as it is seen as a reliable energy supplier.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has invited entrepreneurs to invest in Iran. “Iran is the safest place for investment and the Iranian administration is the most sincere government for its friends,“ he told a group of Italian and Iranian traders and industrialists on the sidelines of the UN food summit in Rome on Tuesday.
Ahmadinejad further said there is no obstacle to expansion of relations between Iran and Italy, Fars News agency wrote.
Referring to the six-billion-euro annual trade between Iran and Italy, he said that the two sides have greater capacities which should be exploited.
By removing restrictions and devising efficient customs and trade regulations and deals, the two countries can raise the volume of mutual transactions and provide opportunities for investment.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

The president referred to more than $70 billion oil and gas deals between Iran and Asian, African as well as European enterprises in the past two years and hoped that the Italians will also have a share in similar deals.
He urged Iran-Italy Cooperation Commission to identify and remove the restrictions and promote two-way relations.
Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad held certain powers responsible for the increase in oil prices. “Certain powers seek oil price increase to earn more profits and justify investment in other regions and sell their products at higher prices,“ said President Ahmadinejad in an interview with Italy’s three popular TV networks and a highly circulated daily on the sidelines of the UN food summit.
He said economic relations should be fair. “Revenues of oil purchasing countries are higher than those of the exporters. Oil price today is artificial.“

Meeting With FAO Chief
President Ahmadinejad also hoped for eradication of poverty through concerted efforts of governments worldwide. “I took part in the UN Food Meeting in response to your invitation and given the significance of FAO. I hope that we will take effective measures worldwide to eliminate poverty and we are eager to offer helpful services in this respect in cooperation with other governments,“ President Ahmadinejad told FAO Chief Jacques Diouf.
In the meeting, held on the sidelines of the UN Food Summit in Rome, Ahmadinejad also hoped that FAO will be more successful in achieving its goals.
Diouf, for his part, offered condolences to the Iranian government on the anniversary of the demise of the late leader Imam Khomeini and briefed Ahmadinejad on FAO’s objectives to eradicate poverty worldwide. He urged Iran to play more active role in FAO, adding that Iran is a model for other countries in increasing food and farming crops production.
The high-level food security summit in Rome garnered another $6 billion in new funding to tackle global food crisis.
Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said the figure of $6 billion is in addition to existing pledges of up to $7 billion which were also announced at the High-level Conference on World Food Security.
The $13 billion amounts to nearly half the $30 billion UN officials say is needed each year to eradicate hunger.
The funding will be going to smallholder farmers who need it the most.
“We need to focus both on the immediate needs and on longer-term issues starting right now and the focus is on the smallholder farmers in developing countries. These are the people who need most help and where there is the most potential for increasing agricultural productivity and production,“ he said.
Holmes, who also serves as the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, briefed reporters in New York on the plan reached in Rome to meet the crisis that soaring food prices have created worldwide.
Convened by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, the summit wound up on Thursday with the adoption by acclamation of a declaration, the ’Comprehensive Framework for Action’.
It calls on the international community to increase assistance for developing countries, in particular the least developed countries and those that are hardest hit by high food prices.

Iran Khodro Company (IKC) was among the 27 international automakers which participated in the Kiev’s Automotive Show 2008 held in the Ukrainian capital from May 26 to June 1.
The company featured its latest model of Samand, Soren, in the exhibition, ISNA wrote.
Samand gets a facelift under the name of Soren. The new model is equipped with the world’s latest technologies in the field, including an electronic warning system, air bag with a host of other safety features, advanced safety belts with protection devices and telescopic steering wheels.
The safety equipment installed in Samand’s Soren model is expected to reduce injuries from collisions by up to 25 percent.
Following the event’s inaugural ceremony, the Islamic Republic’s ambassador to Ukraine visited Iran’s pavilion in the exhibition to see the products on display.
Given the high quality of Samand automobiles and their safety as well as their after-sale services, they have struck a chord with the Ukrainian drivers, IRIB News reported quoting IKC sales representative at the exhibition as saying.
The Kiev Automotive Show has established itself firmly in the fair calendar of the region and is set to remain the most important event for the Ukrainian market.

Iran and China have sealed a 131 million euro deal for the construction of a major steel mill in the central Iranian province of Yazd.
“China will soon begin the project to produce steel using electric-arc process in Ardakan, Yazd,“ Presstv quoted Iranian Deputy Industry Minister Ahmad Ali Harati-Nik as saying during a visit to China this week.
“The 131-million-euro project will boost Iran’s steel production capacity by one million tons,“ he added.
According to Harati-Nik, the state-owned China Metallurgical Construction Group is expected to commence the project in late June.
The deal is in keeping with Iran’s plans to significantly increase steel production over the next several years.
Iran, which currently produces 5.1 million tons of steel each year, intends to push the figure up by another five million tons this year and to reach a target of 30 million tons by 2010.