'Nabucco West is far advanced with talks with int'l financial institutions '

Nabucco West project is far advanced with the talks with international financial institutions on the project's finance, Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH spokesman, Christian Dolezal told Trend in interview in Baku on Tuesday. Dolezal is on a visit to Baku to attend the VI Caspian Oil and Gas Trading and Transportation Conference organized by Confidence Capital.

"We are far advanced with the talks with EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development), EIB (European Investment Bank) and IFC (International Financial Corporation)," Dolezal said.

Dolezal noted that the financial close of Nabucco West can be reached after the final investment decision of the project is made next year.

He stressed that it is very important for the financial institutions to see how the final project looks like and how it will be aligned with the other projects. Dolezal noted that it is important because it will reduce the risks for investors.

He added that the project's debt to equity ratio remains stable at 70:30. That means Nabucco's shareholders will invest 30 percent of total cost of the project, and the rest 70 percent will be paid at the expense of loans.

Nabucco West is a short-cut version of Nabucco project, which envisages construction of the pipeline from 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 the consortium of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas field development selected Nabucco West as the single pipeline option for the potential export of Shah Deniz Stage 2 gas to Central Europe.

Talking about the capacity of Nabucco West Dolezal said that for the time being the 48 inch pipeline is projected to transport maximum of 23 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas. However, he added that if there is a need in a bigger pipeline, Nabucco West can be easily expanded from minimum 10 bcm to even 31 bcm.


/Trend/