Eurocommission approves selection of Nabucco-West project
BRUSSELS. June 28 (Interfax) - The European Commission has welcomed the selection of the Nabucco gas pipeline project for transporting gas from the Shah-Deniz field in Azerbaijan westwards to Europe, Gunter Oettinger, the European Union's energy commissioner, said in an announcement released on Thursday.
"With this pre-selection, we are a step closer to getting gas directly from Azerbaijan and other countries in the Caspian region," he said.
"Whatever the final decision on the whole route from the Eastern part of Turkey to Europe, Azerbaijani gas is certain to come to Europe," he said.
"This is a success for Europe and for our security of supply," he said.
The Nabucco-West project foresees the supply of gas from Azerbaijan through a 1,300 kilometer pipeline, which will start from the Bulgarian-Turkish border, cross into Bulgaria, Romani, and Hungary, and end in Baumgarten in eastern Austria. Nabucco-West is an alternative to the SEEP pipeline project, the operator of which is BP. The British group said that design work on this project will be halted.
The initial Nabucco project proposed a 3,900 kilometer pipeline running through Turkey. Nabucco-West will be connected to the TANAP pipeline, which will run through Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.
A European associate of Oettinger said that "there will be two administrators instead of one but the decision suits us."
The Shah-Deniz field's capacity is estimated at 16 bcm a year. Azerbaijan has decided to sell the bulk of the field's output, around 10 bcm of gas, to Europe. However, no final decisions have been made on gas volume so far, the European official said.
This supply will likely help compensate the increase in EU demand for gas, which should go up from a current 526 billion cubic meters to 622 bcm in 2030, sources at the Eurocommission said.
