Romanian officials, left speechless by Putin

Vladimir Putin stated last weekend, that he has nothing against the development of a direct relationship between Russian and Romanian state-owned energy companies, and the elimination of interims. Putin has stated that he has nothing against Romania"s involvement in the South Stream project, a pipeline which would bring Russian gas directly to Europe, which is designed to cross the territory of Bulgaria.

Romanian officials kept silent on this statement, because Putin has accompanied it with an ironic comment: "I also have a counter offer for Romania, which is extremely hard to refuse... Please tell the Romanian president this:

We are ready to sell Ukraine"s gas demand to the Romanian state owned gas company and you can then sell it to Ukraine... Is that a good deal or not?"

Adriean Videanu, the Minister of Economy said he doesn"t want to comment Putin"s statement. Prime Minister Emil Boc and president Traian Băsescu kept completely silent on the matter. Not even Francisc Toth, general manager of "Romgaz" (editor"s note: the only producer and supplier of natural gas owned by the state) made any comment, but he did make the following statement: "The topic of direct gas imports from Russia has been around for a while now. Last year we have submitted a letter of intent to the management of Gazprom, during an official visit to Russia. Together with Transgaz, we have discussed several projects with Gazprom officials, during their visit to Bucharest at the end of last year, which include the development of storage capacities, but also of transit pipelines".

Romania"s involvement in South Stream would shorten the required length of the pipeline and would reduce the cost of the projects, claim both Russian and European specialists. However, most of them believe that Romania is simply used for blackmailing Bulgaria into accepting certain of Gazprom"s conditions that the latter does not agree with.

The interruption of the delivery of Russian gas to Europe has revived interest in the South Stream and Nabucco projects. Russia wants to pressure the European countries into funding South Stream, and the Europeans want to stimulate the Nabucco project, which would reduce their reliance on Russian energy. While South Stream has been designed to supply Italy through Bulgaria, Hungary and Serbia, Nabucco was considered as an alternative to Russian gas, aimed to to transport Caspian Sea gas into Central Europe. Nabucco crosses Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria.