UPDATE 1-Turkmenistan ready to supply gas for Nabucco link

By Marat Gurt ASHGABAT, July 10 (Reuters) - Turkmenistan, Central Asia's largest gas producer, on Friday became the first country in the region to say it was ready to provide gas for the Nabucco pipeline. "Currently, Turkmenistan has excess gas for trade. We are ready to send it abroad to any customer. This includes Nabucco," Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov told a government meeting, broadcast late on Friday on state television. A raft of transit agreements will be signed on Monday by the architects of the EU and U.S.-backed Nabucco pipeline, which are expected to agree on where the pipeline will begin. The pipeline wants to pump 31 billion cubic metres of gas to Europe annually, meeting some 5 percent of gas needs, but a lack of supply agreements have hampered political will and financing, analysts say. The Vienna-based project, due to come on stream by 2014, will bypass Russia, which currently supplies Europe with a quarter of its gas needs and whose spats with neighbouring transit countries in the past have halted supplies to the bloc. U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns, in an interview to Turkmen state television also on Friday, said he had discussed energy cooperation with Berdymukhamedov during his tour in Central Asia. Possible suppliers for the 7.9 billion euro ($11.01 billion) Nabucco project have included Iraq, Egypt, Iran, Azerbaijan and possibly Russia and Turkmenistan. Some analysts say Nabucco has better prospects than Russia's rival South Stream pipeline in the long run though Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom has fought hard to outpace it in the past year by signing up many East European countries. Nabucco transit countries Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria will sign an accord on July 13 in Ankara. While it may help financing and reassure supplier countries, it will not be a big leap forward for a project already subject to delays. (Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman in Moscow; Editing by Marguerita Choy) ($1=.7173 Euro) Keywords: TURKMENISTAN/NABUCCO ([e-mail], [phone], Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

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