24 April 2012, 15:00
Hungary quits "Nabucco" Project, said Prime Minister
On April 23, Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, said that the Hungarian oil company MOL would quit the gas pipeline project named "Nabucco". So far, the company's managers and the authors of the pipeline project have not confirmed the information.
According to Mr Orban, the "Nabucco" Project is facing implementation problems; therefore, "even the Hungarian MOL quits it." The Premier said that Russia is increasingly active in the "South Stream" Project, which also should cross Hungary.
For Hungary, there are simple economic reasons in favour of the Russian project, the "Bloomberg" quotes the Premier as saying.
So far, the MOL itself has not confirmed nor refuted the information about its withdrawal from the project, although, according to the company, there is too much "uncertainty around the 'Nabucco' Project, which is hard to ignore." The company said that although it seeks to diversify energy supplies in the region, it is obliged to provide its shareholders with the maximum economic justification, the "Interfax" reports.
In his turn, Christian Dolezal, the official representative of "Nabucco", has noted that he had no information about the withdrawal of the Hungarian company or its subsidiary FGSZ from the project, where the company is a shareholder. "As far as I know, the position of the MOL Group in the project and its commitments remain unchanged," The New York Times quotes him as saying.
