Azerbaijan, Baku, May 14 / Trend A.Badalova/
The Hungarian oil and gas firm MOL is examining the possibility of joining the South East European Pipeline (SEEP), Hungarian daily newspaper Nepszabadsag cites a spokesman for BP Toby Odone, Reuters reported.
According to the newspaper's information, MOL together with FGSZ Natural Gas Transmission Company, which is currently a shareholder in Nabucco project, examines the possibilities of gas transportation through existing gas pipelines towards central and southern European states.
Proposed by BP, SEEP envisages gas transportation through existing or expanded infrastructure of Turkey to the Balkan Peninsula, and then the distribution of 10 billion cubic meters from the second stage of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field development to small buyers, including Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia and others via the existing gas pipelines system.
Earlier in April MOL cast serious doubts about 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."
The Shah Deniz consortium currently considers several options to export gas to the European markets. For Central European pipeline route the consortium considers two options - SEEP and Nabucco West, which envisages the construction of a pipeline from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to the Austrian Baumgarten. The choice between these two projects will be made in June.
The final decision on a pipeline route to export Azerbaijani gas to the European markets is expected to be made in 2013.