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Nabucco shareholders welcome possible participation of GDF Suez in project

Oil&Gas Materials 2 March 2010 15:30 (UTC +04:00)
Nabucco pipeline shareholders are interested attracting the French company GDF Suez to the project. GDF Suez President Gerard Mestrallet expressed the desire to join the number of Nabucco shareholders in late 2009.
Nabucco shareholders welcome possible participation of GDF Suez in project

Azerbaijan, Baku, March 2 / Trend A.Badalova /

Nabucco pipeline shareholders are interested attracting the French company GDF Suez to the project. GDF Suez President Gerard Mestrallet expressed the desire to join the number of Nabucco shareholders in late 2009.

According to a source in the energy concern RWE, which is one of the six shareholders in the project, "the door remains open for France."

"Nabucco is a European project aimed at significantly increasing security of gas supply to a large number of countries, as well as contributing to the diversification of both sources of gas and transport routes," RWE told Trend .

The company welcomes the possible involvement of GDF Suez in the Nabucco project, Representative of the Austrian Company OMV Michaela Huber was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

Nabucco shareholders lauded GDF Suez's possible participation in the project. Nabucco official Christian Dolezal told Trend earlier that the consortium is positive about the company's interest.

"The consortium has always stressed that it will be open for a seventh partner if it brings additional value to the project," he said. Nevertheless, the source noted that talks on any company's participation are not being held at the moment.

This week the French company and Russia's Gazprom signed a memorandum on GDF Suez's joining of the Nord stream. According to the agreement, the French company will get 0.9-percent stake in the pipeline.

Nord Stream is a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. The pipeline's capacity is planned to total 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year. The operator of the offshore part of the pipeline is Nord Stream AG.

The first string of offshore gas pipeline with capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters will be commissioned in late 2011 and the second in 2012.

Nord Stream shareholders are Gazprom with 51 percent, N.V. Nederlandse with 20 percent and Gasunie with 9 percent.

The Nabucco project worth 7.9 billion euros will deliver Azerbaijani and Central Asian gas to the EU by 2014. The pipeline's construction is expected to begin in 2011. Its maximum capacity will be 31 billion cubic meters per year. Nabucco shareholders are the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE with 16.7 percent each.

The Nabucco Gas Pipeline International will invest 30 percent of the project on the basis of its share.

The remaining 70 percent will be provided by international institutions.

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