The Maginot Pipeline

Intended as a defense against Russian dominance of EU natural gas supplies, the $7.4 billion Nabucco pipeline is beginning to look like a modern-day Maginot Line.

It’s not just that Russia is outflanking the 3,300-kilometer pipeline to the north and the south with rival projects. After all, Nabucco is intended to carry only up to 31 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas a year from Central Asia through Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to a hub in Austria. Growth of demand for gas in the EU, though, is projected to be several times that figure by 2020. So neither Nabucco, slated to begin deliveries in 2013, nor any other project could fulfill it alone.


No, the trouble here is that Nabucco has exposed the EU’s inability to put up a unified front on energy security. Though EU leaders say it’s the union’s highest-priority project, Europe’s capitals are failing miserably to rally around it.

In looking to strengthen its energy security, Europe’s foremost interest is to diversify suppliers and transit routes. The point is to branch out beyond Russia and its state monopolist Gazprom, not to try to exclude them, which would be impossible and counterproductive given Russia’s proximity and vast resources.

WSJ