Nabucco-West project revived

For the first time during the past 10 years representatives of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH started speaking about economic side of Nabucco gas pipeline project or its shorter version - Nabucco-West, which will start on the Turkish-Bulgarian border and end on the west of Austria, the gas hub of Europe - Baumgarten.

Christian Dolezal, press officer of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH, spoke about that at the VI Caspian Oil and Gas Transport Conference in Baku. There is a feeling that work on the project is in a full swing and this work affects the current statement of the company's representatives. In the past they spoke about the pipeline in political terms, but now they refer more to the figures, which means that the project moved from the political to the commercial stage.

According to Dolezal, at present Nabucco West has several advantages - the gas pipeline route and its total length of 1320 km are known. The countries, via territory of which the pipeline will be built, have signed intergovernmental agreements. The impact of the pipeline construction on the environment has been evaluated in all the countries, except Romania. The project is strongly supported by the EU. As the pipeline's length has been significantly shortened, the financial institutions are not afraid to allot credits. The project is moving forward faster, than it was expected. 

He said the pipeline will be built in a way, so that it will be able to receive more volume of gas from the Azerbaijani gas fields. According to the forecasts, at present 48-inch pipeline will be able to transport maximum of 23 billion cub.m. of gas. He added that if there is need in the pipeline with a bigger volume, Nabucco West could be easily expanded from the minimum 10 billion cub.m. to 31 billion cub.m. by expanding possibilities of the pump stations.

In June 2013 the shareholders of Shah-Deniz will select the gas pipeline route to Europe. At present there is a struggle between TAP and Nabucco-West pipelines.-0-