Scope of Nabucco project to be modified

The Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Taner Yildiz, has indicated that the Nabucco natural gas pipeline project has not been shelved but its scope and name will be changed, as stated in an interview published in the Financial Times. Mr. Yildiz emphasized that, instead, it is more practical for the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) to start from the Azerbaijani-Turkish border and connect with other pipelines that will supply natural gas to the European market. The minister pointed out that the Nabucco project might be converted to a project that will start from Bulgarian-Turkish border, rather than starting from Azerbaijan-Caspian Sea, adding that whatever its name will be, it is quite important that such a pipeline should be built.
 
On the other hand, Nabucco Consortium has announced that it has submitted a proposal to the Shah Deniz II Consortium for the construction of a 1,300 km long ‘Nabucco West' pipeline, which would bring Caspian gas from the Bulgarian-Turkish border to Baumgarten in Austria and beyond.
 
Consulted by SteelOrbis, Ahmet Kamil Erciyas, chairman of the Turkish Steel Pipe Producers Association, commented on the issue as follows: "As is known, the Nabucco project has been introduced to diversify the natural gas supplies of European countries and reduce their dependency on Russia. However, there are some impediments regarding the project for which the intergovernmental agreement was signed in 2009. The most important one of all is the question of which country will be the supplier of the natural gas. This issue is not likely to be resolved in the short term. Cost and financing problems also make the implementation of the project difficult. The cost of the pipeline, originally estimated at $7.9 billion, is forecast to double due to price hikes. The ongoing debt crisis in Europe means that the financing problems will not be easy to overcome. Finally, the recent statements of Nabucco's major shareholders RWE and MOL to the effect that they will examine the feasibility of the project is proof that the Nabucco project will not come into existence as planned. Therefore, we approve and support the minister's remarks. We believe that revising Nabucco to start from the Bulgarian-Turkish border will prove better for the Turkish pipe industry, because in Nabucco there was a risk that the pipes would come from abroad through cheap export credit. Since Turkey will be able to prove its ability to design and build the pipeline, Trans-Anatolia is a smart and appropriate project which will show that we are thinking big. Turkish pipe producers have the capacity and experience to carry out the Trans-Anatolian pipeline project which is expected to cost nearly $5 billion. Additionally, as Turkish pipe producers we want to be among the partners of the TANAP project and to contribute to financing of the implementation of the project."
 
The shareholders in the Nabucco project, holding equal stakes of 16.67 percent, are OMV (Austria), FGSZ (Hungary), Transgaz (Romania), Bulgarian Energy Holding (Bulgaria), Botas (Turkey) and RWE (Germany).