Europe: Boost for Nabucco

WHATEVER its critics say, the Nabucco gas project must be doing something right. Last month, German energy company RWE joined the consortium developing the project, strengthening the pipeline's chances of being successfully developed. That has been in doubt since Russia's Gazprom and Italy's Eni signed an agreement to build the South Stream pipeline from Russia to the Balkans and central Europe. South Stream and Nabucco will target the same markets, but while Gazprom says it has the gas to commit to its 31bn cubic metres a year (cm/y) project, Nabucco has struggled to find adequate upstream reserves to fill its pipeline, which will also, eventually, have a capacity of 31bn cm/y. Whether RWE'