The French utility GDF Suez S.A. (GSZ.FR) has bought around 9% in the proposed gas pipeline project Nabucco West from Austrian oil and gas company OMV AG (OMV.VI), OMV said Tuesday.
With the purchase, GDF Suez replaces German utility company
RWE AG (RWE.XE), which sold its 17% share in the pipeline to OMV--one of
the main shareholders of the proposed pipeline--in April for an
undisclosed sum.
The transaction between OMV and GDF Suez is expected to close
in the second half of 2013 and the companies have agreed not to disclose
the purchase price or other conditions of the deal, OMV said.
Nabucco
West is one of two remaining proposed pipelines in the running to bring
Caspian Sea gas supplied by the Shah Deniz consortium to Europe,
helping to decrease the region's dependency on Russian gas.
Should the final decision fall in Nabucco
West's favor, the pipeline's shareholder structure will face another
shake up because the Shah Deniz consortium has already announced that it
will take at least a 50% stake in whichever pipeline is chosen in June.
OMV's Chief Executive Officer Gerhard Roiss said the pipeline
consortium is looking forward to Shah Deniz's upcoming decision.