Shah Deniz II to acquire stake in Nabucco West gas pipeline

New reports indicate that Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz II gas group could agree to take over a 50% stake in the Nabucco pipeline consortium in early 2013. Such a move would boost the EU-backed gas pipeline’s prospects in a competition between projects that aim to flow Azeri gas into Europe.

According to Nabucco stakeholder, Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH), talks were advanced and that it is hoped a deal could be sealed on 10^th January at a Nabucco shareholders’ meeting in Sofia.

"We are holding talks almost every day. We expect Shah Deniz to acquire 50% of the shares in the Nabucco consortium," Mikhail Andonov, head of BEH, told reporters recently.

Nabucco’s rival, the Trans-Adriatic pipeline (TAP) pipeline, which aims to pump Azeri gas to Italy, has already signed a deal with the Shah Deniz II consortium. The consortium has previously stated that Nabucco would have to hand over a significant stake in the project in order to stay in the race.

"There are two semi-finals for the Azeri gas. Such a deal will boost significantly the prospects for Nabucco," BEH's Andonov noted.

The Nabucco gas pipeline project was initially designed to transport 32 billion m³/yr of Azeri and other central Asian gas through Turkey and southeastern Europe into Austria.

However, high costs and a lack of gas suppliers beyond the Shah Deniz II consortium have led the project to being downsized and shortened.

With a new route and a new name, the Nabucco West project now aims to ship 16 billion m³/yr of gas from the Turkish border to Austria, leaving the transit through Turkey to the joint Azeri-Turkish TANAP pipeline.

The EU supports the delivery of Azeri gas to the region, which is expected to start in 2018 regardless of the pipeline chosen, to reduce its dependency on Russian gas imports.

Edited from various sources by Cecilia Rehn

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/21122012/shah_deniz_ii_acquires_stake_in_nabucco_west_gas_pipeline/