Nabucco Submits New Shah Deniz Proposal

Reinhard Mitschek, Managing Director of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International, issued a press statement on 16 May confirming the submission of a new proposal to the Shah Deniz gas field consortium. This replaces the original 3,900km, 31 bcm/year capacity pipeline to deliver Azeri, Turkmen and Iraqi gas across Turkey to Southeast Europe. The Asiatic component of Nabucco has now been fully replaced by the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), a joint Turkish-Azeri project (MEES, 5 March) whose exact details will be announced by the end of June. The new ‘Nabucco West’ proposal will be a 1,300km pipeline linking European Turkey with Baumgarten in Austria, with a so far unspecified throughput capacity that will be “fully scalable” and in tune with the needs of Caspian producers, Mr Mitschek underlined.

He also expressed his conviction that the Nabucco partners “have submitted a competitive and comprehensive proposal to the Shah Deniz Stage 2 consortium,” and that this proposal “represents a win-win situation for our shareholders and for suppliers alike.” However, MEES understands that the Nabucco partners have been unable to attract Bayerngas as a new partner and have no obvious replacement for Hungary’s MOL, which has announced a decision to withdraw from Nabucco and sell its shares in the project (MEES, 7 May).

© Copyright MEES 2012.