Romanian state-run natural gas transporter Transgaz Medias SA (TGN.RO)
and Austrian oil and gas company OMV AG (OMV.VI) will provide a loan of up to
7.5 million euros ($10 million) to Nabucco Gas Pipeline International so that
the latter doesn't go insolvent, news agency Mediafax reports.
Transgaz will provide up to 50% of the loan, it said in a statement Tuesday.
In addition, the Romanian company will contribute another EUR1.34 million to a
capital increase of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International.
Transgaz and OMV are shareholders in Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH, a
Vienna-registered company set up to manage the now-defunct Nabucco West
pipeline project.
The project was supposed to transport Azeri gas from
Turkey
to
Austria
,
offering a new delivery route to
Europe
and
thus reducing European dependence on Russian gas.
However, the consortium developing
Azerbaijan
's
largest gas field Shah Deniz-2 has opted for rival Trans-Adriatic Pipeline to
ship its gas to the European market.
Following the failure of its pipeline project, Nabucco Gas Pipeline
International has started procedures for a controlled shutdown, Transgaz said. The
overall budget for the shutdown was set at EUR20 million.
Transgaz announced recently it has written down assets worth 110.7 million lei
(EUR25.1 million) in relation to the Nabucco West project and said that it
could take additional charges of up to RON6.6 million.
OMV took a one-time charge of EUR55 million because of the failed project.
The other shareholders in the project are
Bulgaria
's
BEH,
Hungary
's
MOL,
Turkey
's
Botas and
France
's GDF
Suez.