Nabucco Consortium Bids for New Azeri Natural Gas Production

Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH has submitted a comprehensive transportation proposal to the consortium developing Stage 2 of Azerbaijan’s offshore Caspian Shah Deniz natural gas field. Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH Managing Director Reinhard Mitschek stated, “We are convinced that Nabucco offers the best way to transport gas from Azerbaijan and other countries. Political support and stability has been granted by a treaty with a duration of 50 years signed by all five transit countries as well as by bilateral project support agreements.”

Azerbaijan is currently entertaining four other bids besides Nabucco’s for its increased natural gas exports from its offshore Caspian Shah Deniz field. According to British media reports, British Petroleum is contemplating offering to build Baku a 800 mile-long alternative pipeline for the natural gas exports through Turkey onwards to the Romanian-Hungarian border.

The 56-inch, 2,050-mile Nabucco pipeline, first proposed in 2002, has a cost initially estimated at $11.4 billion and rising, Istanbul’s Hurriyet newspaper reported. Interest in Nabucco has been revived following French energy giant Total’s announcement last month of massive reserves in its Absheron X-2 block, less than 20 miles from Shah Deniz, which is believed to have large pockets of gas spread over a 100 square mile field, up to a total of several trillion cubic feet of gas and associated condensates.

By. Charles Kennedy, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com