Azerbaijan, Baku, June 28 / Trend A.Badalova/
The consortium of Azerbijani Shah Deniz gas field development selected Nabucco West as the single pipeline option for the potential export of Shah Deniz Stage 2 gas to Central Europe, the joint statement of BP and SOCAR says.
According to the report, published on Wednesday, development of the South East Europe Pipeline (SEEP) project, which had been assembled by Shah Deniz partners in collaboration with Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, will cease.
The decision was made on the basis of the publicly communicated selection criteria announced in 2011.
"In particular, the greater maturity of Nabucco West gave the consortium confidence that this project could be developed and delivered on the same timeline as Stage 2. The consortium will now cooperate with the Nabucco West project to optimise its scope, its technical studies and its commercial offer," the report says.
According to Rashid Javanshir, President of the BP Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey Region, the decision represents another important milestone in the development of Shah Deniz Stage 2 and the transportation of gas resources from the Caspian to Europe.
"This decision constitutes a significant step towards implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor Strategy which would serve the strategic interest for sustained energy security of European countries as well as Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey," Rovnag Abdullayev, President of SOCAR, said.
Nabucco West is a short-cut version of Nabucco project, which envisages construction of the pipeline from Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria. Gas to be produced within the second phase of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas field development is considered as the main source for the project. The current shareholders of Nabucco project are Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV, German RWE and Hungary's FGSZ.
The final decision on a pipeline route to export Azerbaijani gas to the European markets is expected to be made by Shah Deniz Consortium in 2013.