Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 12 / Trend A. Badalova /
ITGI's shareholder DEPA says a scalable pipeline with an initial 10 bcm capacity seems more rationale for now to supply all the Shah Deniz II gas to Europe as soon as it becomes available.
"ITGI project should be considered as the first step in a phased approach to opening up the Southern Gas Corridor," Harry Sachinis, DEPA Chairman and CEO.
Nabucco could be the second once further gas volumes become available, he added.
He was commenting on the recent statement by Austrian OMV chief executive, who allowed possible delay in Nabucco project.
Austria Press Agency reported earlier referring to Gerhard Roiss, the OMV chief executive, which is one of the shareholders in Nabucco project that first gas could flow through the pipeline only in 2018.
Nabucco gas pipeline project envisages gas supplies from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU countries.
The pipeline's maximum capacity will hit 31 billion cubic meters per year.
"The ITGI system can begin supplying Azeri gas to Southern Europe through the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector as early as 2013, sooner than any other pipeline proposal", Sachinis said.
ITGI involves gas supplies from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU countries. It includes updated Turkish pipeline infrastructure and also ITG projects such as the Turkey-Greece junction pipeline and IGI. Its planned capacity is 11.8 billion cubic meters per year.
All three pipeline projects within the Southern Gas Corridor (Nabucco, ITGI and TAP), aimed at transporting Azerbaijani gas to Europe under the second phase of the project on development of the Shah Deniz gas-condensate field have already submitted final proposals to the Azerbaijani side.
The Shah Deniz-2 consortium will review proposals submitted in accordance with previously announced criteria, including commercial attractiveness, ability for project realization from the technical and financial point of view, engineering and design work, management, coordination and transparency, the possibility of a phased scale-up and other criteria.
The Azerbaijani side is going to deliver 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Europe under the Shah Deniz-2 project through the chosen pipeline.