'Nabucco not lost its importance'

Turkey doesn't believe that Nabucco lost its importance, Anadolu news agency quotes Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz as saying on Thursday while commenting on statements that permission for implementation of South Stream will decrease role of Nabucco.

He said the EU need in energy carriers will amount to 700 billion cubic meters per year by 2030 and this need will not be met even if all projects of the Southern gas corridor and South Stream corridor are implemented.

The minister also noted TANAP project will allow to Nabucco project to buy gas at the Turkish-Bulgarian border.

Earlier, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a consortium. It will build a pipeline to supply gas from the "Shah Deniz" field in Europe through the Turkish territory.

The participants of the project plan to resolve all issues on this gas pipeline in 2012 and begin construction for the project to be implemented by late 2017, when the implementation of the second stage of Shah Deniz field development is launched. The gas pipeline will be the basis of the Southern Gas Corridor.

Reserves of Shah Deniz field are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.

The contract to develop the offshore Shah Deniz field was signed June 4, 1996. Participants to the agreement are: BP (operator) - 25.5 percent, Statoil - 25.5 percent, NICO - 10 percent, Total - 10 percent, LukAgip - 10 percent, TPAO - 9 percent, SOCAR-10 percent.

Nabucco gas pipeline is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and Middle East to the European countries. The project's partners include the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and the German RWE.


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