Koka told a press conference held jointly with Hungary's Nabucco envoy Mihaly Bayer that he had proposed the idea during a recent visit to Egypt.

During talks between Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in October 2009, Bajnai had indicated that Hungary considers Egypt's participation in the Nabucco project very important, government spokesman Domokos Szollar told MTI.

Egypt has natural gas reserves of 2,800 billion cubic metres and it exports gas from two liquified gas (LNG) terminals and through a pipeline leading to Syria with a capacity of only 1 billion cubic metres, which they intend to extend to Turkey.

Hungary's annual gas consumption is estimated at 13-14 billion cubic metres.

Ambassador Mihaly Bayer expressed hope that the final investor decision on the Nabucco could be taken by the end of this year and construction could begin in 2011.

The 3,300-kilometre planned Nabucco pipeline's main objective is to deliver gas to Europe circumventing Russia and Ukraine in order to reduce dependency on Russian supplies.

The 7.9-billion-euro pipeline will deliver natural gas from Central Asia to western Europe via Turkey. The first deliveries are expected to start in 2014.

EGYPT NEWS

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