Azerbaijan, Baku, May 20 / Trend /
Successful implementation of the Nabucco gas pipeline project today depends on signing of gas supply contracts by its shareholders with potential suppliers, including Azerbaijan, Iraq and Turkmenistan, German media company Deutsche Welle quotes Trend Agency commentator Aygun Badalova, as saying.
She believes that availability of gas supply contracts, which will be a guarantee to fill the pipeline, will become a strong incentive for the project's potential lenders.
Nabucco project envisages gas supplies from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU countries. The project's participants are the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE, each with an equal share of 16.67 percent.
In early May, the Nabucco consortium has announced about the postponement of the project's implementation terms. The pipeline's construction is now scheduled for 2013, while the first gas supplies via the pipeline are expected in 2017.
The consortium explained it with the necessity of synchronization of the project's implementation terms with the gas production terms in Central Asia and Middle East.
At present, the Nabucco consortium is conducting complex analysis, as a result of which the final cost will be set for the project.
Badalova said in an interview with Deutsche Welle that the project will not lose its attractiveness for the European Union even in case of rise in its cost.
She said the Nabucco project meets the EU's main goal - the diversification of energy supplies, and therefore will remain as a priority for it.
It is evidenced by the European Commission's statement that it will continue supporting this project even in case of rise in its cost, since the implementation of the Nabucco project will ensure its direct access the Caspian region's gas, Deutsche Welle quotes Badalova, as saying.
In August 2010, the Nabucco shareholders approved two feeder lines - the Turkish-Georgian and Turkish-Iraqi borders. Decision to redirect the laying of the Nabucco gas pipeline from Iran to Iraq has increased the overall length of the pipeline by 550 kilometers, which can also be one of the reasons for rise in the project's cost.
Another reason for rise in project's cost may be an increase in steel prices, Deutsche Welle reported.
At present, the final cost of the project is unknown yet, but according to BP estimates, the cost of the Nabucco gas pipeline project may increase by almost half - to 14 billion euros, DeutscheWelle reports.
