Azerbaijan, Baku, July 30 / Trend A. Badalova /
Nabucco gas pipeline consortium, designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU countries, postponed the pre-qualification tender for the supply of pipes. Bloomberg reported that with reference to the representative of the "Nabucco" project in Vienna Gabriele Egartner that the cause of delay was the large number of applications for participation in the tender.
"Now we have more participants than expected", Egartner said.
She said that the tender will be continued, as soon as a list of contenders is checked.
The consortium announced about the beginning of the pre-qualification tender for the supply of durable goods (pipes, valves) for the construction of Nabucco gas pipeline in April. The total cost of the tender package is 3,5 billion euros.
One of the parties which declared its interest in participating in the tender was German company Europipe.
The Nabucco gas pipeline project worth 7.9 billion euro envisages gas supplies from the Caspian region to EU countries. Participants are the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE. Each has an equal 16.67-percent share.
Construction is planned to launch in 2011, with first supplies being commissioned in 2014.