Nabucco welcomes ratification of TANAP agreement by Azerbaijani Parliament
The ratification of the agreement on the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline system (TANAP) by Azerbaijani Parliament is a vital step to open the Southern Gas Corridor, Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH spokesman, Christian Dolezal told Trend news agency on Tuesday.
"Nabucco is fully transparent to TANAP and opened its database to enable a swift cooperation," Dolezal wrote Trend via e-mail.
The Azerbaijani parliament on Tuesday ratified an agreement on the construction of a separate gas pipeline to transport gas to Turkey through its territory, as well as an agreement on TANAP between the Azerbaijani and Turkish governments.
The TANAP project envisages the construction of a gas pipeline from Turkey's eastern border to the western border to transport gas from Azerbaijan's offshore Shah Deniz field to Europe through Turkey.
Azerbaijani state energy firm SOCAR owns 80 per cent in the TANAP project, while Turkish BOTAS holds the remaining 20 per cent.
Initial capacity of TANAP is expected to be 16 billion cubic meters a year. Around 6 billion cubic meters will be delivered to Turkey, while the rest will be transported to Europe.
According to preliminary estimates, the cost of the gas pipeline will be around $7 billion. The construction of the pipeline is scheduled to begin in 2014 and finish in 2018.
Nabucco West is a short-cut version of Nabucco project, which envisages construction of the pipeline from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria.
The project's current shareholders are Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV, German RWE and Hungary's FGSZ, and each of them holds 16.67-percent share.
In June the consortium of Shah Deniz gas field development chose Nabucco West as the single pipeline option for the potential export of Shah Deniz Stage 2 gas to Central Europe.
Currently, the Shah Deniz consortium considers two options to deliver its gas to Europe - Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and Nabucco West. The final decision on a pipeline route will be made in 2013.