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Nabucco gas pipeline project can ``dovetail seamlessly`` with the planned Azerbaijani-Turkish Trans-Anatolia pipeline (TANAP), which is to stretch from eastern Turkey to its European Union border, an analyst at the Washington-based think tank says.

``Among the existing options, Nabucco-West [which is the short version of the Nabucco project] seems the optimal continuation route for the Trans-Anatolia line into Europe,`` Vladimir Socor, Senior Fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, said in an article posted on the foundation`s website.

Nabucco gas pipeline is one of the Southern Gas Corridor projects, which is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and Middle East to European countries. Gas to be produced during the second phase of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field development, which is expected to begin by late 2017, is considered the main source for Nabucco.

According to Socor, as distinct advantages, Nabucco-West, which envisages the construction of a pipeline from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to the Austrian Baumgarten, inherits the inter-governmental agreements, project support agreements, and uniform European legal-regulatory regime already established with the earlier configuration of the project.

``The Nabucco countries` gas networks are, or will soon be, well inter-connected. Driven by diversification goals, market demand for Azerbaijani gas is strongest in the Nabucco countries. The EU supports these countries` supply diversification goals,`` Socor said.

Currently the Shah Deniz consortium considers options to export gas to the south-eastern and central Europe, which include Nabucco West and South-East Europe Pipeline (SEEP). The pipeline route will be selected by late June 2012.

Earlier, the consortium made Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) a priority route for export of Azerbaijani gas to Italy.

The final decision on the pipeline route to export Azerbaijani gas to European markets is expected in 2013.

With regard to SEEP, Socor said it remains only a preliminary concept thus far. It proposes to scrap construction costs by using existing pipelines, pipeline segments, and inter-connectors from Turkey to central Europe. However, BP-proposed cost savings are ``less of a distinct advantage``, Socor says.

SEEP`s proposed annual capacity of 10 billion cubic meters a year is almost certainly unscalable, involving diverse owners in multiple national pipeline segments, he said.

Ukraine eyes Tanap stake
Ukraine has expressed its interest to acquire equity in the TANAP pipeline project.

``Ukraine plans to participate in TANAP,`` Ukraine`s ambassador to Azerbaijan, Alexander Mishchenko, told a press conference last week.

Socar holds 80 percent in the TANAP project, while the Turkish state-owned energy company Botas has a 20 percent stake.

Mishchenko said Ukraine is closely following the negotiations ongoing between Azerbaijan and Turkey.

``We are ready to consider all the combinations acceptable and possible for our partners. A positive decision on Ukraine`s involvement in the project has been reached at the political level. Experts will now give a more realistic picture of what Ukraine can bring to this project.``

The ambassador said the TANAP project is important for Ukraine since energy security is ``a sphere of our interests``.

``This project affects the interests of the whole region and therefore we could not leave it without attention,`` the diplomat said.

Initial capacity of the pipeline is expected to be 16 billion cubic meters per year. About 6 billion cubic meters of the volume will be allocated to Turkey, while the rest will be transported to Europe.

Azerbaijan currently exports gas to the neighboring country via the South Caucasus Pipeline, a section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) pipeline.

Call for `concrete actions`
European leaders should begin taking ``concrete actions`` for the implementation of the Nabucco pipeline project, Turkish Yeni Asr newspaper quoted Azerbaijani Parliament Vice Speaker Valeh Alasgarov as saying.

``The implementation of the Nabucco project is being delayed. There are no concrete actions on its implementation,`` Alasgarov said at a Eurasian economic summit in Istanbul last week.