Nabucco Consortium Plans to Downsize the Azeri-Austrian Pipeline

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Nabucco Consortium has scaled down the Nabucco gas pipeline to a smaller pipeline project called Nabucco West. "We are convinced that we have submitted a competitive and comprehensive proposal to the Shah Deniz II Consortium, and that this proposal represents a win-win situation for our shareholders and for suppliers alike," Reinhard Mitschek, the managing director of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International, said in a statement.

The 1,300-kilometer Nabucco West pipeline will carry Caspian gas from the Bulgarian-Turkish border to the Central European Gas Hub (CEGH) in Baumgarten and beyond. The Nabucco Consortium did not specify the capacity of the new project.

Separately, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz, said that the agreement with Azerbaijan for a new pipeline to bring gas from the Caspian Sea to Turkey will be concluded by the end of June. In an interview with the Financial Times, Yildiz said, "The Azeri-Turkish pipeline, Trans Anatolian Pipeline Project, or Tanap, is more realistic to start with. In the end I believe whatever the name of the project is, it is more important that it is do-able."

The original Nabucco pipeline was 3,900 kilometers long and ran from the eastern border of Turkey to Baumgarten in Austria. Energy experts criticized the Nabucco project for its size and its costs of at least $10 billion--far more than other leading pipelines that target Caspian gas.

The Nabucco pipeline is a joint venture of RWE AG (PINK:RWEOY) (Essen, Germany); OMV AG (PINK:OMVKY) (Vienna, Austria); Mol Nyrt (PINK:MGYOY) (Budapest, Hungary); Bulgargaz SA (Sofia, Bulgaria); Transgaz SA (BVB:TGN) (Sibiu, Romania); and BOTAS (Ankara,Turkey). Mol and RWE have questioned the feasibility of the original version of Nabucco, threatening to leave the project company.

For related information see March 23, 2012, article - Nabucco Pipeline Consortium Considers Merging with Competing Trans-Anatolia Pipeline.

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