Moldova ex-PM Ion Sturza: South Stream is a project born dead in the minds of politicians and Nabucco is unreal as long as no understanding is reached with Iran

Vineri, 2 octombrie 2009, 15:40 English | Regional Europe

Ion Sturza, a former prime minister of the Moldova Republic, currently a businessman associated with Romanian businessman Dinu Patriciu, believes that the South Stream project has no chance to be put in practice. "South Stream is a project born dead in the minds of politicians who had only one purpose, to send a signal of ignoring Ukraine. South Stream is a 900 km pipeline on the bottom of the Black Sea which costs 25 billion euro. It's absurd", Sturza said.

He also criticized the Nabucco project but gives it a chance as compared to South Stream. In his opinion, the Nabucco pipeline depends mostly on Iran and on the country's readiness to provide natural gas to Europe.

"Nabucco is not real as long as an understanding with Iran is not reached as it does not have a natural gas resource. The Azerbaijan or Turkmenistan resource is not plausible", he said.

Ion Sturza attended the Black Sea Economy and Energy Forum in Bucharest this week.

• In Romanian: A HotNews.ro video interview with Ion Sturza