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Nabucco official: Trans-Caspian gas pipeline - stable solution for transporting Turkmen gas to Europe

Oil&Gas Materials 9 June 2010 11:10 (UTC +04:00)
Construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline is a good solution for transporting Turkmen gas to European markets, said an official representative of the Nabucco project, Christian Dolezal.
Nabucco official: Trans-Caspian gas pipeline - stable solution for transporting Turkmen gas to Europe

Azerbaijan, Baku, June 3 /Trend, A.Badalova/

Construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline is a good solution for transporting Turkmen gas to European markets, said an official representative of the Nabucco project, Christian Dolezal.

According to Dolezal, it is obvious that the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline assumes great importance in supplying Turkmen gas to Europe through Nabucco pipeline.

"There are other options that are currently being discussed by the shareholders. But the pipeline is a very stable and good solution for the transportation of gas," Dolezal told Trend.

Speaking of Turkmenistan as a source of gas supplies for Nabucco, Dolezal said that this is a country, with which the gas traders are currently negotiating. According to Dolezal, still it is unknown whether the Turkmen gas will be transported via Nabucco in 2014, but it is considered as a possible source of supply in the next stages of the project.

According to data provided by BP, the proven gas reserves of Turkmenistan as of the beginning of 2009 amounted to 7.94 trillion cubic meters, accounting for 4.3 percent of total world proven gas reserves. Oil production in the country, according to BP, was 66.1 billion cubic meters in 2008, which is 0.7 percent more than 2007. Gas export potential of the country in 2015-2016 is estimated by RWE, which is one of the six shareholders of the Nabucco project, at 10 billion cubic meters.

Dolezal said the main sources of gas supply for the Nabucco project are considered Azerbaijan, in particular the gas of which will be produced in the second stage of the development of the Shah-Deniz field, and Iraq.

"Azerbaijan is a very important potential gas supplier for Nabucco," said Dolezal. According to him, the shareholders of the project are currently negotiating with the consortium of Shah-Deniz.

However, given the fact that the implementation of Shah Deniz-2 project is scheduled for 2016, the first gas deliveries through Nabucco, which is scheduled for the end of 2014, will be realized at the expense of the Iraqi gas, said Dolezal. In the first stage of realization, the Nabucco project expects Iraqi gas in volume of 8 billion cubic meters, and Azerbaijani - 10.8 billion cubic meters.

In any case, we can begin our project, and in this case, we can speak about Iraq's gas, or more precisely, the gas from northern Iraq, which is currently in the process of production, said Dolezal.

The cost of the Nabucco project is 7.9 billion euros. 30 percent of total project cost will be invested by the shareholders of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International on the basis of participation share, and the remaining 70 percent will be paid by loans from international financial institutions and export credit agencies. Construction of the pipeline is scheduled for 2011 and first deliveries are expected to be realized in 2014. Maximum capacity of the pipeline will total 31 billion cu.m per year. The project participants are the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE.

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