Shippers have shown keen interest in registration and capacity booking in the
Nabucco West pipeline during the first week of the Open Season process, Nabucco
Gas Pipeline International (NIC) said on Thursday.
"Nabucco has received
strong interest from variety of shippers, including potential shippers not part
of Nabucco, the Shah Deniz consortium or its buyers," NIC said in a
statement.
NIC was set up in 2004 to develop, build and operate the
Nabucco pipeline. A downsized version of the project, Nabucco West, is competing
with the Trans Adriatic Pipeline for access to gas from the giant Azeri Shah
Deniz II field in the Caspian Sea. A final route decision is expected in
June.
In the first phase of the Open Season process potential shippers
can register to book capacity in the pipeline and request access to the Open
Season documents, following which they can provide non-binding capacity
bookings. This phase is scheduled to be completed by the end of the second
quarter of 2013. After the it comes to an end shippers will be invited to submit
binding bids. The start of the binding bid phase is expected in the third
quarter of the year.
The partners in the Nabucco project are Bulgaria's
Bulgargaz, Turkey's Botas, Romania's Transgaz, Hungary's FGSZ, a subsidiary of
MOL, and Austria's OMV.