The Shah Deniz consortium has started to study the bids to export its gas to Europe, the president of Azerbaijan's State Oil Company has confirmed.
Talking to journalists on Wednesday, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said that three bids were currently being evaluated,Interfax-Azerbaijan reported.
"This work will take approximately 15-20 days,” Abdullayev said. "After they have completed the evaluation, the consortium's experts have to present their conclusions to us."
It was reported on Monday that the Shah Deniz Consortium had received three bids by the 1 October deadline. The bids came from the Nabucco, Trans Adriatic Pipeline and IGI-Poseidon (ITGI) projects.
The consortium said earlier that a decision would be taken by the end of the year, but Rovnag Abdullayev's remarks today imply that the decision may come even sooner.