Nabucco says talks on coop agreement with Shah Deniz consortium 'progressing'
The negotiations between Nabucco West project and the consortium of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field development on cooperation agreement are progressing, Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH spokesman, Christian Dolezal told Trend news agency on Monday.
"The Nabucco consortium is progressing well with its negotiations with the Shah Deniz II consortium for the cooperation agreement. This will contribute to strengthening the Nabucco project further," Dolezal wrote Trend via e-mail.
On Monday SOCAR head Rovnag Abdullayev told journalists that Nabucco West project will submit its final proposals on short term finance to the Shah Deniz consortium in the first decade of December. According to Abdullayev, after that in the middle of the month Shah Deniz partners will start the decision making process on joining Nabucco West.
Dolezal refused to comment the latest information on German RWE's possible withdrawal from Nabucco project until a specific decision is taken by the Nabucco Steering Committee.
Reportedly RWE, which is one of Nabuco West shareholders, may sell its stake in the project to fellow shareholder Austrian OMV. A possible deal to transfer German utility's stake could happen before the end of the year.
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 Azerbaijani 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.