LONDON
U.K. energy giant BP PLC (BP) confirmed Friday that a key European pipeline project to import natural gas from Azerbaijan, called Nabucco, will be of much more limited scope than hoped and reach only Europe's border with Turkey.
Conn's comments, delivered at a conference in Berlin Thursday, come as little surprise after the Nabucco consortium, which is backed by European energy companies OMV AG (OMV.VI) and RWE AG (RWE.XE), last week put forward a far less ambitious plan for the pipeline to run only from Austria to the Bulgarian border with Turkey.
These decisions mark the end of a key strategic initiative, that had considerable political backing from EU and U.S. authorities, to reduce Russian dominance over European gas supplies by importing gas direct from Central Asia.
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