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Tymoshenko touts White Stream in Brussels

By M. Alkhazashvili
(Translated by Diana Dundua)
Friday, February 1
After meeting with European Commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner in Brussels, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko told journalists that Kiev is urging the EU to support the White Stream natural gas pipeline project.

White Steam would transit Caspian region natural gas to the EU via Ukraine and Georgia.

“There is the Nabucco project, but we would like to propose attentive consideration of the White Stream project, as well. This project could be much more effective if Ukraine and the European Union act as partners in it,” Tymoshenko said.

Mikheil Gonchar, director of energy programs at the Nomos Center, told the news agency Regnum that the White Stream is logistically more attractive than the Russian Nord Stream project, which would send a pipeline from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea.

The White Stream project uses a much shorter sub-sea section than Nord Stream, Gonchar says. Another benefit of White Stream is that the Baku–Tbilisi section is already in place, in the form of the South Caucasus Pipeline.