Azerbaijan, Baku, April 12 / Trend A.Badalova/
Nabucco gas pipeline project can dovetail seamlessly with the planned Azerbaijani-Turkish Trans-Anatolia project (TANAP) at the Turkish-Bulgarian border, Senior Fellow of Jamestown Foundation (Washington), Trend Expert Council Vladimir Socor believes.
"Among the existing options, therefore, Nabucco-West seems the optimal continuation route for the Trans-Anatolia line into Europe," Socor said in an article, published on Jamestown Foundation's official website.
According to Socor, as distinct advantages, Nabucco-West, which is which is the short version of the Nabucco project, and envisages the construction of the pipeline from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to the Austrian Baumgarten, inherits the inter-governmental agreements, project support agreements, and uniform European legal-regulatory regime, already established with the earlier configuration of the project.
"The Nabucco countries' gas networks are, or will soon be, well inter-connected. Driven by diversification goals, market demand for Azerbaijani gas is strongest in the Nabucco countries. The EU supports these countries' supply diversification goals," Socor said.
Nabucco gas pipeline is one of the Southern Gas Corridor projects, whiuch is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and Middle East to the European countries.
Gas to be produced within the second phase of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field development is considered as the main source for Nabucco.
Currently the consortium considers options to export gas to the southern-eastern and central Europe, which include Nabucco West and SEEP. The pipeline route to this direction will be selected by late June, 2012. Earlier the consortium made TAP (Trans Adriatic Pipeline) a priority route for export of Azerbaijani gas to Italy.
The final decision on a pipeline route to export Azerbaijani gas to the European markets is expected in 2013.
With regard to the SEEP (South-East Europe Pipeline), Socor said that it remains only a preliminary concept thus far. It proposes to scrap construction costs by using existing pipelines, pipeline segments, and inter-connectors from Turkey to Central Europe.
However, BP-proposed cost savings are less of a distinct advantage, he belives. SEEP's proposed annual capacity of 10 bcm is almost certainly unscalable, involving as it does diverse owners in multiple national pipeline segments, Socor said.