OMV says no Nabucco without Azerbaijani gas

Nabucco gas pipeline project will only be realized if the project partners manage to secure large gas supplies from Azerbaijan in the coming months, Austrian newspaper Kurier Thursday cited the chief executive of Austrian Nabucco consortium partner OMV AG as saying, Dow Jones reported.

"Without Shah Deniz, no Nabucco," OMV Chief Executive Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer told Kurier.

Nabucco project is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU countries. The project is worth 7.9 billion euro, with its construction planned to start in 2012 and the first supplies to be commissioned in 2015. The project's participants include the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE.

Azerbaijan is considered as the main source of supply for the "Southern Corridor" projects, in particular, with its gas to be produced within the second stage of the Shah-Deniz field development.

The partners developing Azerbaijani large gas condensate field Shah Deniz plan to sign contracts to sell gas from the second stage of the project development in mid-2011.


/Trend/