Gaz de France cancels Nabucco interest

French energy firm Gaz de France recently canceled its bid to become the seventh member of Nabucco pipeline consortium.   The French gas company’s involvement with the Nabucco pipeline was contentious.  Turkish energy officials opposed Gaz de France’s involvement with the Nabucco pipeline because of the French National Assembly’s approval of a bill which made it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered at the hands of the Ottomans during the First World War.   Despite resistance, however, France continued to show interest in participating as recently as last month.  Details of the cancellation were not given, though Jean Sirelli of Gaz de France-Suez said that it would consider rejoining if the pipeline was extended to France.    My take on it is that it doesn't really matter.  Nabucco has enough leadership; what it needs are the actual supplies.  Dubbed 'a pipeline without gas,' the Nabucco pipeline project has floundered in the absence of a natural gas source.  Azerbaijan, the onetime hope for the pipeline’s leadership, is no longer “feasible” as a supplier.  In the absence of a single gas source, Nabucco leadership is deliberating a more multilateral approach for the pipeline, potentially supplying Europe an amalgamation of Middle Eastern, Northern African, and Eurasian gas.  This would raise the multi-billion dollar price tag on Nabucco even higher, but at the very least save its face.