Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Nabucco West pipeline will be able to provide access for Azerbaijani natural gas to the Balkan countries, a source in the pipeline consortium, Nabucco Gas Pipeline International, told Trend news agency.

"Nabucco is in fact best placed in the access to the Balkan markets because of the existing possibilities of interconnection of such transit countries like Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria," the source said.

According to the source, infrastructure is already available to transport gas through the Nabucco pipeline to Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Slovenia and Italy and through the construction of a few short interconnectors the gas may be supplied to Montenegro, Greece and Albania.

Earlier, Vice-President of the Azerbaijani state energy company SOCAR, Elshad Nasirov, said in a press interview that selling gas as much as possible to the Balkan countries is a priority for SOCAR.

"As far as the Balkan states are concerned, for SOCAR this is a priority - to sell gas as much as possible in the Balkan countries - first of all because these countries expressed their desire to buy gas and secondly potentially for the producer of gas any country, any company that is closer to the production site is potentially the preferential buyer since the transportation costs are lower to the countries closer to the production," Nasirov said.

The Nabucco consortium source stressed that in addition, Nabucco will have an access to Baumgarten, Austria, which is a liquid market.

"Also, there are over 16 billion cubic meters (bcm) of combined storage capacities along the Nabucco route, which promotes energy security and significant business opportunities in these countries," the source said.

"Therefore, Nabucco is perfectly positioned to access the growing markets of South East and Central Europe."

Nabucco West is a short-cut version of the Nabucco project, which envisages construction of a pipeline from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria. It is one of the two options -- along with the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) -- which is currently considered by the consortium developing Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas-condensate field in the Caspian Sea to deliver its gas to European markets. The final decision on a pipeline route will be made this year.

The Nabucco project's current shareholders are Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV, German RWE and Hungary's FGSZ. Gas to be produced within the second phase of Shah Deniz development, which is expected to obtain first gas in 2018, is considered as the main source for the project.