Nabucco West still competes with TAP in supply of Azerbaijani gas to Europe

Nabucco West project is still in the running for delvery of Azerbaijani gas to the European markets, Reuters reported with the reference to director of SOCAR’s representative office in Germany Elmar Mamedov.
According to Mamedov, the recent agreement between BP, SOCAR and TOTAL (the partners of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field development) and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) on project funding is not a step against Nabucco West.
“The agreement with TAP gives the partners more legal and planning security. It is not a decision against Nabucco West,” Mamedov. He also added that SOCAR wanted to agree the same deal with the Nabucco West consortium and was cooperating further with the both projects.
In early August, BP, SOCAR and TOTAL signed an agreement with the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) to provide funding in the short term. According to the agreement tese funds will contribute towards continued work in several important areas during the period running up to the final routing decision, expected in 2013.
The Funding Agreement also includes an option for the Shah Deniz shareholders to take up to 50 percent equity in TAP.
TAP is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and further into Western Europe. TAP’s initial pipeline capacity will be 10 billion cubic metres per year, expandable to 20 billion cubic metres per year. TAP’s shareholders are EGL of Switzerland (42.5 percent), Norway’s Statoil (42.5 percent) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 percent).
Nabucco West is a short-cut version of Nabucco project, which envisages construction of the pipeline from Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria. The project’s current shareholders are Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV, German RWE and Hungary’s FGSZ.