Azernews.Az

LONDON – European Union officials are pushing for a merger of Nabucco and ITGI projects, to help secure supplies from Azerbaijan to Europe, industry and EU sources say, Reuters reported.

According to EU industry and political sources, officials at the European Commission are urging ITGI and Nabucco to enter talks about merging their operations.

One option could be to start off with the low-cost ITGI pipeline plan, estimated at $3.4 billion, compared to Nabucco's $10.7 billion price tag, and then expand at a later date, one industry source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The project might be launched in two phases: "Southern Corridor Phase I" would carry gas to Greece and onwards to Italy; the later "Southern Corridor Phase II" would create a spur from the main pipeline and follow Nabucco's original planned route northwards to Austria, an industry source said.

According to the statement of Nabucco Pipeline Consortium, there have been no discussions between Nabucco and ITGI about any potential cooperation and no discussions have taken place within the consortium.

Nabucco is being developed as a stand-alone pipeline and will be a crucial link between the Caspian Region and Middle-East region and Europe, the statement reported.

Nabucco project id designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU countries. The project is worth 7.9 billion euro, with its construction planned to start in 2012 and the first supplies to be commissioned in 2015. The project's participants include the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE.

ITGI includes a modernized Turkish pipeline infrastructure, as well as projects ITG (connecting pipeline Turkey-Greece) and IGI (Greece-Italy). IGI Poseidon S.A. was created by the Italian company Edison and Greek company Depa for the design and construction of the pipeline Greece-Italy, known as Poseidon.