Today.Az » Business » Nabucco Managing Director: "Azerbaijan will be the first country to pump gas into Nabucco Pipeline"
22 February 2008 [10:08] - Today.Az
Azerbaijan is expected to be the first country to pump natural gas into to the Nabucco pipeline which will deliver “blue fuel” from the Caspian Sea to Europe, eroding the continent’s dependence on Russia.
Reinhard Mitschek, Managing Director of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH, sees high probability that Azerbaijan will take the first step to fill the pipeline.
“The first supply contracts are slated to be signed at the end of 2008 after we will have signed shipping contracts with European companies which aspire to buy the Nabucco gas,” he said in an interview in Abu Dhabi.
The $6 billion Nabucco pipeline will take natural gas from the Caspian Region to Europe via Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria. The EU-backed project is aimed at securing the EU’s gas supply by diversifying routes and suppliers away from Russia.
European gas demand is expected to increase sharply in the coming years and depend more on imports, as output from European fields shrinks.
The project is slated for completion by 2009. The project envisions commissioning of the pipeline in 2011.
The project consortium members include 5 founding investors, OMV (Austria), MOL (Hungary), Botaş (Turkey), Bulgargaz (Bulgaria) and Transgaz (Romania). Germany’s RWE AG joined the Nabucco gas pipeline as the sixth partner.
/APA/
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