Uncertainty over gas supply sources obstacles Nabucco’s further progress

The final investment decision on Nabucco gas pipeline project can not be made as long as there is uncertainty over the gas supply sources, Dow Jones Newswires reported with the reference to the CEO of Hungary's energy company MOL.

"For the time being, there is no obvious source of gas and there is also much uncertainty about the volume of the necessary investments. As such we can't even begin to discuss the project's returns," MOL's CEO Jozsef Molnar said.

MOL is a 100 percent owner of FGSZ Natural Gas Transmission Company, which is one of the six shareholders in Nabucco gas pipeline project. The project is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and Middle East to the European countries. The project's other partners include Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV and German RWE.

Gas produced during the second phase of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field development is considered to be the main source for the Nabucco project.

Earlier an official representative of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International said that the project's consortium considers Nothern Iraqi gas as an option to secure future gas supply to Europe.

Recently, Dow Jones Newswires reported with the reference to people familiar with the issue, that the consortium of Nabucco project proposed a pipeline which will have roughly half of Nabucco's initial capacity of 31 billion cubic meters.

Later the Shah Deniz consortium's official representative told Trend that Nabucco submitted the project's new conception, according to which the pipeline will be laid from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to the Austrian Baumgarten. The original concept of Nabucco project envisaged the construction of the pipeline from the Georgian-Turkish and Iraqi-Turkish borders to Baumgarten. The pipeline was expected to run through Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria over a distance of 3,900 kilometres.


/Trend/