Turkey and five European Union countries have signed an agreement to reduce Europe's reliance on Russian gas, The Associated Press reported. The prime ministers of Turkey, Austria, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary signed the deal on Monday to allow the Nabucco pipeline to cross their countries. It will be built by a private consortium. Iraq, Egypt and Syria say they are ready to provide gas to the project, which is nevertheless unlikely to free Europe entirely from its dependence on Russian supplies. In fact, it may even need some supplies from Russia to fill its 31 billion cubic meters of capacity. The Nabucco is mainly designed to diversify suppliers by directly linking Europe to gas resources in Central Asia and the Middle East.
