Azernews.Az

The partners of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field development are in talks with Nabucco West project on a stake in the project, Reuters reported with the reference to Austria's economy and energy minister Reinhold Mitterlehner.

"There are very concrete talks," Mitterlehner told a news conference during talks between the energy ministers of the project's transit countries and the Nabucco consortium partners.

Nabucco West is a short-cut version of Nabucco project, which envisages construction of the pipeline from Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria. Gas to be produced within the second phase of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas field development is considered as the main source for the project. In June the Shah Deniz consortium selected Nabucco West as the single pipeline option for the potential export of Shah Deniz Stage 2 gas to Central Europe.

The project's current shareholders are Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV, German RWE and Hungary's MOL, and each of them holds 16.67-percent share.

With regard to the MOL's selling its stake in the Nabucco project, Mitterlehner said that Hungary's political interest in the project continued.

According to OMV Chief Executive Gerhard Roiss, there is no talk of MOL withdrawing. "We have no sign that MOL wants to exit as a shareholder," Roiss said.