The consortium developing Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gasfield, which includes British Petroleum, Statoil, SOCAR and Total, sought Romania's official stance on its participation in the construction of the Nabucco West gas pipeline, informs a release issued on Wednesday by the Ministry of Economy, Agerpres reports.
Romanian Minister of Economy Varujan Vosganian met on Wednesday, Jan. 30, with a British Petroleum International delegation headed by the company's vice-president for the South Corridor, John Baldwin; the sides tackled the Nabucco West project that will ship natural gas to the European market from the exploitation of Azerbaijan reserves. Minister Vosganian shared with the BP delegation Romania's interest in this project, which represents an immediate option for providing an alternative source of natural gas, an objective that is also included in the national energy strategy. The Minister informed the representatives of the energy company that the Ministry of Economy supports natural gas transport schemes along the Asia - Europe route that could also run across Romania's territory.
Talks on the Nabucco West project with representatives of Bulgaria and Hungary are in an advanced stage.
The gas transportation route in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria remains the same as in the initial Nabucco project, said the Ministry of Economy.
In January 2013, the Nabucco shareholders signed a Cooperation Agreement, as well as an Equity Option and Funding Agreement, with the shareholders of the Shah Deniz gas field.
Nabucco Gas Pipeline International is to start designing the Nabucco West gas transport pipeline in late January and over April-May 2013 the consortium will assess the potential gas flow capacity and the amounts that will transit each state in order to determine the cost of the entire project, Nabucco Gas Pipeline International CEO Reinhard Mitschek said on Jan. 21 in a telephone press conference.
Source: bne