Azernews.Az

Nabucco gas pipeline project's shareholders, Nabucco Gas Pipeline International Gmbh (NIC) and the partners on Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field development and Nabucco project's potential investors -- SOCAR, BP, Statoil and Total -- have reached Equity Option and Funding Agreement, Trend news agency reported.

According to a NIC statement, the agreement envisages joint funding of the development costs of the Nabucco West up to the pipeline selection decision for Shah Deniz' European export route and the granting to Potential Investors of equity options of 50 percent to participate as shareholders in NIC following a positive pipeline selection decision by the Shah Deniz Consortium in favour of Nabucco West.

The Shah Deniz Consortium, NIC and the Nabucco Shareholders have also reached agreement in principle on a Cooperation Agreement for further development of Nabucco West and alignment with the Shah Deniz Stage 2 Project.

The Equity Option and Funding Agreement and the Cooperation Agreement are being finalised and will be executed shortly in Vienna between the relevant parties.

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, 2012 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. The final decision on the pipeline route to transport Azerbaijani gas to Europe will be made this year.