Azernews.Az

Partners in the development of Azerbaijani gas condensate field Shah Deniz intend to sign an agreement with Nabucco West on project financing for its development until the period of the final route selection for the export of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, head of Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev told reporters on Saturday.

He noted that it will allow to study the project in more detail.

Abdullayev added that Shah Deniz partners consider two possible projects of Azerbaijani gas transportation to Europe - Nabucco West and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). These projects are considered on the same criteria in order to make a decision in May 2013.

Earlier, a similar agreement was signed with the TAP project. Under the agreement, funding will be used for various activities under the project, which is planned to be implemented before a final decision on the export pipeline route of Azerbaijani gas to Europe in 2013.

The agreement also includes the possibility of acquiring 50 percent in the TAP project by Shah Deniz partners.

Nabucco-West envisages the construction of 1,300 km pipeline (Bulgaria: 412 km, Romania 469 km, Hungary 384 km, Austria 47 km). from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to the Austrian Baumgarten. The shareholders are the Austrian OMV, Hungarian FGSZ, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE.

TAP is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and further into Western Europe. TAP's initial pipeline capacity will be 10 billion cubic metres per year, expandable to 20 billion cubic metres per year. TAP's shareholders are EGL of Switzerland (42.5 percent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 percent) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 percent).