Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

German RWE's stake in Nabucco West has been transferred to the Austrian OMV company, bringing OMV's share in the gas pipeline project to 34.76 percent.

Nabucco West is a short-cut version of the Nabucco project, which envisages construction of a pipeline from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria. Gas to be produced within the second phase of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field development is considered as the main source for the project.

Reuters reported with reference to the OMV spokesman that the current shareholder structure of Nabucco West is not going to be a final one.

According to Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH, the pipeline consortium, the current shareholder structure of the project is as follows: Turkish Botas, Romanian Transgaz and Bulgarian Energy Holding with 17.38 percent each, OMV with 34.76 percent, while Hungary's FGSZ has a 13.11 percent stake in Nabucco West.

On April 12, Nabucco participating countries reaffirmed their commitment to ensure that Nabucco West is selected as the first European route to transport gas from the Caspian.

Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH reported on Saturday that a meeting of the fourth Nabucco Committee including representatives of Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Turkey and Austria, which was hosted by the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, adopted a joint declaration, formally reiterating the political support of the Nabucco countries for the project.

The consortium's managing director, Reinhard Mitschek, welcomed the declaration.

"Today's meeting was yet another positive event in Nabucco's development as we approach the decision by the Shah Deniz II consortium in June," Mitschek said.

"The state parties reaffirmed their support to ensure that Nabucco realizes its goal of diversifying energy supply across Europe. The level of strategic and ongoing tactical cooperation demonstrated at the meeting today proves that Nabucco's political and legal framework is a key asset to the project that delivers real benefits - for producers, investors and suppliers - as we move towards the final phase of the project's development," Mitschek added.

Earlier Mitschek said that Nabucco West expects to finalize the Shareholder Agreement with the partners on Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field development in April.

In January Nabucco shareholders and Shah Deniz partners SOCAR, BP, Statoil and Total signed Cooperation Agreement and Equity Option and Funding Agreement.

Currently, the Shah Deniz consortium is considering two options for its gas transportation to Europe - Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and Nabucco West. The final decision on the pipeline route will be made in June 2013.

The TAP project is designed to transport gas from the resource-rich Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and further into western Europe. TAP's initial pipeline capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters per year, but it is easily expandable to 20 billion cubic meters.

Both TAP and Nabucco West pipeline projects are part of the Southern Gas Corridor, a major energy project for the EU seeking to diversify routes and sources of supply.