Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 18 / Trend , corr. A.Bdalova /The drop of the world steel prices may cause the reduction in the cost of the Nabucco gas pipeline, the west newspapers release referring to Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer, the head of the Austrian OMV oil and gas company, which is the operator of Nabucco.
"From the point of view of the cost of project, we still proceed from the cost of €7.9bln ($10.46bln). However, this may fall in the result of a drop in steel prices", Ruttenstorfer said.
According to the Bloomberg newspaper, Reinhard Mitschek, the director of the Nabucco Gas Pipeline International company, price of steel and pipes fall, which compensates probable high payments on percentages. "We will conduct the necessary investment changes in the next year, and this can be a positive surprise", he said. Two million tons of steel and 200,000 pipes will be needed for building of the Nabucco gas pipe.
According to Mitschek, at present partners of the consortium conduct negotiations with creditors regarding financing of the project. In the second-half of 2009 they are intended to agree about the conditions for agreements on loans with banks and government creditors. Negotiations on adoption of final investment decision by the financing were postponed as a result of the fact that transit agreements with Turkey were engaged more time than it was expected.
"The final decision will be accepted not earlier than the end of 2009," Mitschek said.
Participants of the project are Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Rumanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE. Each of the participants possesses equal shares - on 16.67%. About 30% of the total cost of project will be invested by shareholders of the Nabucco Gas Pipeline International on the basis of share in the project. Remaining 70% will be paid due to creditors, one third of whom will be financed by international financial institutes, and the remained part - by export credit agencies and commercial banks.
Each of six partners will invest €400mln it is necessary about €1bln , in the share of commercial banks. The remained share will be financed by such international institutes as the European Investment Bank, the European bank of Reconstruction and Development or Japanese Bank of International Collaboration.
According to Mitschek, the global financial
crisis will not show influence on financing of the project.
"On the contrary, banks avoid short-term credits and is given preference to
long-term infrastructural projects, like our's", he said.
It is planned to deliver gas from Azerbaijan and the Central Asia to European
Union countries via the Nabukko pipeline. The building of this gas pipeline is
planned to 2010. The maximum power of the pipeline will be 31bln cu meters per
year.
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