Azerbaijan, Baku, June 29 / Trend A.Badalova /
Nabucco West, which is one of the potential export routes for Azerbaijani gas to Europe, expects additional sources of gas for the project, Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH Managing Director Reinhard Mitschek said during a conference call on Friday.
"Sooner or later we may also see gas from Turkmenistan and Iraq. Nabucco West will be ready to take also this gas for European markets," Mitschek said.
According to Mitschek, Nabucco West may expect several billion cubic meters from these two countries in addition to the gas from Azerbaijan. He also believes that the investment of TANAP and Nabucco West will encourage other producers to exploration and production activities in the Caspian region and Middle East.
He stressed that the first source for Nabucco West is Azerbaijan, in particularly gas which will be produced within the second phase of Shah Deniz field development.
However, Mitschek said that there are several other fields in Azerbaijan which are very promising and as additional source can be also transported via Nabucco West to the European markets.
With regard to the pipeline capacity, Mitschek said that minimum volumes that Nabucco West will transport amount to 10 billion cubic meters. However the capacity can be easily expanded to 14 or 20-23 billion cubic meters per year.
Nabucco West is a short-cut version of Nabucco project, which envisages construction of the pipeline from Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria. The Nabucco West Proposal was submitted by Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH on 16 May, 2012.
This week, the consortium of Azerbijani Shah Deniz gas field development selected Nabucco West as the single pipeline option for the potential export of Shah Deniz Stage 2 gas to Central Europe.
The project's current shareholders are Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV, German RWE and Hungary's FGSZ.