Azernews.Az

VIENNA - The Nabucco pipeline venture to transport natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe has postponed a 3.5 billion-euro ($4.6 billion) July tender for pipes after receiving more prequalification bids than expected, Bloomberg reported.

"We had more participants than expected and the site visits continue to take place during the summer," Gabriele Egartner, a spokeswoman for Nabucco in Vienna, said in an e- mailed statement. "The tender will follow as soon as we have checked the full list of applicants," with tender dates yet to be announced.

Nabucco had said in April that it was planning to carry out the tender for long-lead items including line pipes, valves and bends in July. The venture, which is headed by Austria’s OMV AG and will need about 2 million tons of steel, got more than 60 prequalification bids from companies, Vlad Pavlovschi, general manager of Nabucco Gas Pipeline Romania SRL, said in May. The applications are being evaluated by an independent auditor, he said, declining to provide more details.

The 7.9 billion-euro pipeline is planned to stretch more than 3,300 kilometers from Turkey to Austria to send gas to Europe and reduce the region’s dependence on Russia.

The venture partners, which also include Budapest-based Mol Nyrt., Germany’s RWE AG, Bulgargaz EAD, Romania’s Transgaz SA and Ankara-based Botas, will decide on the investment by the end of this year. Construction is set to begin in 2011 and shipments may start by the end of 2014 or early 2015, according to Nabucco’s website.