Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz II consortium may acquire as much as 50% in the
Nabucco gas pipeline project, boosting prospects for its construction by
ensuring gas supplies, a Bulgarian company involved said Thursday.
"We expect Shah Deniz to take over 50% of the shares in the
Nabucco consortium," Mihail Andonov, head of the Nabucco stakeholder
Bulgarian Energy Holding said Thursday.
Talks are advancing and a deal might be reached as soon as
January 10, when the Nabucco shareholders will meet in Sofia, he added.
"Such a deal will boost significantly the prospects for Nabucco," Andonov said.
The BP-led Shah Deniz consortium, overseeing the Caspian Sea
gas field of the same name, is considering two pipelines to transport
its gas to Europe--the Nabucco West pipeline which will travel to
Austria, or the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline to Italy via Greece.
The Nabucco project has been scaled back after Azerbaijan and Turkey concluded a deal in June under which Turkey will take some of the gas originally planned to be shipped to Europe and build the pipeline section across its territory.
Nabucco now plans to transport 10-23 billion cubic meters of
gas per year 1,300-kilometers from the Bulgarian-Turkish border to link
up with a European pipeline network in Austria.