* Commission will officially announce list in October
* Russia's South Stream not on the list
* Baltic grid also on the list
By Francesco Guarascio and Andrius Sytas
BRUSSELS/VILNIUS, Sept 20 (Reuters) - The Nabucco Westpipeline, which lost a contest to ship Azeri gas to Europe, isstill on a list of projects eligible for EU cash, implying theEuropean Commission still believes it could be built, EUdiplomats said.
The Commission, the EU executive, next month is expected topublish a final list of projects judged significant to more thanone EU nation and entitled to accelerated planning approval aswell as consideration for money from the EU budget.
Commission officials declined to disclose the content of thelist before publication.
But the diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, saidit included the Nabucco West scheme, led by OMV, aswell as the Trans Atlantic Pipeline (TAP), which was selected toby the Shah Deniz gas consortium to carry gas to Europe.
TAP includes Norway's Statoil, BP, SOCAR,Fluyxs, Total, E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany and Swisscompany [AXPO AXPOH.UL].
Commission officials have repeatedly said Nabucco West isnot dead and could one day be built if more Caspian gas becomesavailable.
Other schemes on the list of roughly 200 Projects of CommonInterest include a Baltic energy grid, aimed at ending theisolation of Baltic states and curbing their reliance on Russia.
A feasibility study for a gas link from Cyprus to Crete andthen Greece or Italy is also on the list.
Cyprus has high hopes of rapidly developing its gas reservesto revive its broken economy, but export routes are complicatedby its long-standing rift with Turkey.
COMMON INTEREST TO DIVERSIFY
For the European Commission, the point of the TAP pipelineand also Nabucco West, should it ever be built, is that theywill ship Azeri supplies, helping to diversify EU supplies awayfrom reliance on Russian gas.
Part of the response of Russia has been the giant SouthStream pipeline through the Black Sea and Bulgaria, Serbia,Hungary and Slovenia to northeast Italy. This is not on the EUlist of projects, the diplomats said.
Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger told reporters SouthStream did not meet the criteria for a priority project.
"South Stream is an addition, but it does not give us accessto any new sources of energy and it does not increase thecompetitiveness of the energy market in European Union,"Oettinger said following a meeting of EU energy ministers inVilnius.
"South Stream is an idea that comes from our easternpartners. We have no problems with South Stream, but we don'tthink it's a particular EU priority."
Also in Vilnius, the Lithuanian energy minister said sixLithuanian projects were on the list, including a project tosynchronise the Baltic states electric grid with continentalEurope.
For the first time the multi-year EU budget includes somefinancing that can be used for energy infrastructure, althoughhaggling has reduced the energy share to around 5 billion euros.
The Commission hopes these funds will trigger much greaterprivate investment.
It has estimated 100 billion euros is needed just to improveenergy transmission lines as part of a single, connected EUenergy market with an increasing share of renewable power.
BP (BP.)
