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Nabucco project can lose investor confidence

Oil&Gas Materials 1 May 2012 17:49 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, May 1 / Trend A.Badalova/

Hungarian MOL's statement about its readiness to sell its share in Nabucco consortium exposes a serious crisis of confidence in the project, the analyst for political risk at Menas Associates in London, focusing on Caspian energy and political issues, Alexander Jackson said.

Jackson said that at one level the withdrawal of MOL is not an insurmountable obstacle.

"Bayerngas is still considering its participation and the other stakeholders can buy out MOL's stake, in any case. Moreover, in their responses the Nabucco consortium has emphasized that the agreements governing the project are intergovernmental in nature, not tied to specific companies," Jackson wrote Trend via an e-mail.

MOL is a 100-percent owner of FGSZ Natural Gas Transmission Company, which is one of the six shareholders in Nabucco gas pipeline project designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and Middle East to Europe. Last week MOL cost serious doubts about the the project and said it is ready to sell its share in it. According to MOL, Nabucco's source of natural gas and financing are both uncertain and the company has experienced "a continuous increase regarding the costs of the realization of the project, while it is still unclear how much the final cost will be."

Later the representative in Nabucco Gas Pipeline International said that MOL's move would not affect the project implementation. He said that the project's financing is secured, adding that the negotiations with Germany's Bayerngas on joining the project still continue.

"However MOL's decision on withdrawal exposes a serious crisis of confidence in the Nabucco project," Jackson added.

He also mentioned that German utility RWE, which is also Nabucco's shareholder, has already expressed doubts about the pipeline's cost and feasibility, and the EU has significantly decreased its support.

"This lack of support from all sides will reduce investor confidence and may even prompt another stakeholder to withdraw," Jackson said.

Nabucco gas pipeline project is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and Middle East to the European countries.

The project's current partners include Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV, German RWE and Hungarian FGSZ.

In June the Shah Deniz consortium is going to make a choice between Nabucco and SEEP (South East Europe Pipeline) projects. The final decision on a pipeline route to export Azerbaijani gas to the European markets is expected in 2013.

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