Pipeliners

March 26th, 2009 – BRUSSELS -(Dow Jones) - The planned Nabucco pipeline won't solve Europe's energy needs as it will only be one source of diversification, European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said Thursday. "It's important, but it's not basic change," Piebalgs said during a panel at a business conference. He said energy efficiency, renewable energy and other similar policies would create the "basic change" the European Union needs to make in order to reduce its dependence on energy imports, while at the same time meeting the challenges of increased energy demand. The European Commission has been considering the Nabucco project - a 3,300-kilometer pipeline supposed to bring central Asian gas to Europe - as a priority to differentiate E.U. energy supply sources, mainly away from Russia. However, the project has raised skepticism by some experts and E.U. countries, which question the availability of enough gas in central Asia to fill the pipeline and make it commercially viable.