Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday his government will sign intergovernmental and transit country accords for the Nabucco natural gas pipeline project within a few months, the Ihlas News Agency, or IHA, reports.
The Nabucco pipeline is planned to transport 30 billion cubic meters of gas a year from the Caspian Sea and Middle Eastern regions to Europe, bypassing Russia and thus reducing Europe's reliance on its gas-rich eastern neighbor.
The pipeline, supported by the European Union, is planned to transport natural gas from Turkey to Austria via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. The consortium that aims to construct the project comprises Turkish state-owned energy company Botas, MOL Nyrt. (MOL.BU), Bulgaria's Bulgargaz, Romania's Transgaz (TGN.RO), Germany's RWE AG (RWEOY) and Austrian OMV AG (OMV.VI), each holding a 15% stake.
Turkey aims to secure higher transit fees and rights to trade gas transported through the pipeline.
In early 2008, the consortium revised up Nabucco's construction cost to EUR7.9 billion from a 2005 estimate of EUR4.6 billion. However, Turkey has said it could meet its share of the rising costs. The Nabucco pipeline is expected to become operational in 2013.