VZCZCXRO9568
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDF RUEHDH RUEHHM RUEHIK RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHMA
RUEHPB RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHTM RUEHTRO
DE RUEHBS #0768 1541508
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 031508Z JUN 09
FM USEU BRUSSELS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC
INFO RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUCNMEU/EU INTEREST COLLECTIVE
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA
RUEHAH/AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
RUEHKB/AMEMBASSY BAKU
RUEHSI/AMEMBASSY TBILISI

UNCLAS BRUSSELS 000768 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EPET EUN IR IZ TU
SUBJECT: EU: RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE ON IRAN AS AN ENTRY POINT 
FOR NABUCCO 
 
REF: STATE 54469 
 
Sensitive but Unclassified - not for Internet distribution. 
 
¶1. (SBU)  On June 2, 2009 Econ Officer delivered reftel 
demarche to EU Commission officials Heinz Hilbrecht, Director 
for Security of Supply and Energy Markets at DG-TREN, and 
Brendan Devlin, Principal Administrator under Hilbrecht 
charged with shepherding the Nabucco Intergovernmental 
Agreement (IGA) negotiations.  Hilbrecht and Devlin 
understood U.S. concerns over the inclusion of Iran as a 
named entry point under the Nabucco IGA.  They shared, 
however, that the wording of the IGA had already been changed 
to a more generic wording that includes no mention of Iran. 
After last week's negotiations in Vienna, the text on entry 
points has been changed to read:  "'Initial Entry Points' 
shall mean the starting points for the Nabucco Project at any 
(three) points on the eastern or southern land borders of the 
Republic of Turkey as selected by Nabucco International 
Company, and, subject to the agreement by the Nabucco 
Committee in consultation with Nabucco International Company, 
any other points at the eastern or southern Turkish Border." 
 
¶2. (SBU) Hilbrecht indicated that the current text reflects 
concerns over the inclusion of Iran as a named entry point as 
well as concerns raised by Turkey over the inclusion of Iraq 
as a named entry point.  Devlin indicated that the Commission 
was disappointed by Turkey's move to exclude Iraqi gas 
supplies from Nabucco and said the EU would appreciate USG 
help to facilitate Iraq's connection to Nabucco, at Nabucco 
tariff prices, not at a price worked out bilaterally between 
Turkey and Iraq.  Devlin stressed that the U.S.  and the EU 
need to keep close contact on this as the Nabucco 50 percent 
third party access allows any third company to book capacity, 
and there are no restrictions.  Theoretically, an Iranian 
company could book capacity and Nabucco International could 
do nothing about it.  The key issue will be the amount of 
demand at each potential entry point; if there is lots of 
Iraqi demand, then Iran is off the table (on the assumption 
that eventually there are only two initial entry points) - 
the other entry point would be Georgia. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Comment.  While true that Nabucco International 
could not deny capacity to any shipper, including from Iran, 
this would not preclude the U.S. from pursuing diplomatic 
initiatives with Member States to discourage any such 
purchases.  End Comment. 
Davis 
.