Original Nabucco concept may fail

Nabucco gas pipeline project, which is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and Middle East to the European countries, is unlikely to take shape as originally planned, German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung cites EU diplomats, Dow Jones reported.

According to the newspaper, the pipeline, whith a planned maximum capacity of 31 billion cubic metres per year, has become too expensive.

The shareholders of Nabucco project are looking at a smaller pipeline to Austria from the border between Bulgaria and Turkey, the newspaper said.

The project's original concept envisages the construction of the pipeline with the length at 3,900 kilometres from the Georgian-Turkish and Iraqi-Turkish borders to Baumgarten. The pipeline is expected to run through Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria.

Earlier Nabucco Gas Pipeline International proposed a new conception of the project (Nabucco-West) to the Shah Deniz consortium, according to which the pipeline will be laid from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to the Austrian Baumgarten.

The current shareholders of Nabucco project, which is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and Middle East to the European countries, are Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV, German RWE and Hungary's FGSZ.


/Trend/