Azernews.Az

Nabucco transit countries acknowledged a political declaration confirming the validity of the Nabucco Intergovernmental Agreement and Project Support Agreements to Nabucco West, Trend news agency reported referring to the Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH.

The declaration was introduced by the Bulgarian Minister for Energy at the Nabucco Political Committee in Sofia.

According to the report, this declaration encouraged the shareholders of Nabucco to consider the early implementation of a gas interconnection between Bulgaria and Turkey.

CEO of the Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH Reinhard Mitschek said that the ministerial declaration of support affirms that Nabucco West enjoys unequalled legal and regulatory security.

"We welcome this message of support, and look forward to working with the state parties to ensure freedom of choice and energy security for the European consumer," Mitschek said.

Nabucco West is a short-cut version of Nabucco project, which envisages construction of the pipeline from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria.

The project's current shareholders are Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV, German RWE and Hungary's FGSZ, and each of them holds 16.67-percent share.

In June, 2012 the consortium of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas field development chose Nabucco West as the single pipeline option for the potential export of Shah Deniz Stage 2 gas to Central Europe. The final decision on the pipeline route to transport Azerbaijani gas to Europe will be made this year.