Pipeliners

May 14, 2009 - (UPI) - ANKARA, Turkey. Citing domestic needs, Turkish officials rebuked claims that measures for the Nabucco natural gas pipeline were set for a swift approval by the end of June. Regional leaders emerged from an energy summit in Prague, Czech Republic, last week with declarations in support of the $10.7 billion Nabucco pipeline. Turkey would host a major leg of the 2,051-mile pipeline, and many analysts expect Ankara to sign on to its part of Nabucco by the end of June. The Guardian newspaper in Britain reported earlier this week that Turkey and the European Union reached a "breakthrough" on Nabucco negotiations, with anonymous officials saying "there is no conditionality" to the deal. Turkish officials had set June 25 as the target date for the measure, but anonymous officials speaking to Turkish daily Hurriyet said there were still sticking points on the deal. "There is still disagreement on the issue of how the income tax will be shared," the official said. "We are driving a hard bargain on that issue." Turkey had dropped demands for discounted prices on 15 percent of the Nabucco gas passing through its territory but has not backed down on measures for domestic gas consumption, Hurriyet reports.