Azernews.Az

LONDON – The Nabucco and ITGI pipelines which plan to bring Azerbaijan's natural gas to Europe could tie up since one pipeline is enough to serve Europe's gas needs, a senior executive at ITGI's shareholder Edison said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Three consortia are vying to build the infrastructure to carry gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz II gas field to Europe -- pipelines known as Nabucco, TAP and Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy (ITGI). Azerbaijan is expected to decide in the next few months which project to prioritise.

"We believe that with current demand and current (gas) availability, ITGI with its 10 billion cubic meters a year capacity is a more realistic project," said Roberto Poti, central development director at Italian utility Edison.

"There could be an agreement reached so that ITGI does not clash with Nabucco," Poti told reporters on the sidelines of an energy conference, without elaborating further.

ITGI aims to bring Caspian gas via Turkey to Italy and onwards to Europe by strengthening existing infrastructure and building a submarine link between Greece and Italy.

The $10.5 billion Nabucco pipeline will carry 31 billion cubic metres (bcm) a year of Azeri gas across Turkey into southeast Europe and onwards to an Austrian trading hub. ITGI is expected to cost $3.4 billion.

Poti said Azerbaijan is expected to decide in June who would win a tender for 10 bcm of gas earmarked for Italy and Greece.

The country has been in talks with more than 20 firms and consortia looking to buy gas from Shah Denis II and has said it would conclude negotiations by mid 2011.

Nabucco's shareholders include Germany's RWE, Austria's OMV, Hungary's MOL, Romania's Transgaz, Bulgaria's BEH and Turkish state pipeline firm Botas.

ITGI's shareholders are Edison, Greek DEPA and Turkish Botas.