Azerbaijan, Baku, July 23 / Trend A. Badalova /
The consortium of Nabucco West project is ready to start talks on interconnection with Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP), Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH spokesman, Christian Dolezal said in an interview with Trend in Baku.
"We are ready to start talks on how to interconnect these two projects," Dolezal said.
According to Dolezal, the negotiations on this issue will start in the upcoming months.
Azerbaijan and Turkey signed an intergovernmental agreement on implementation of the TANAP pipeline project on June 26. At present, a 20 per cent share in TANAP belongs to Turkish BOTAS, 80 per cent and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR).
The initial capacity of the pipeline is expected to reach 16 billion cubic meters a year. About six billion cubic meters will be delivered to Turkey and the rest to Europe.
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 project's current shareholders are Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV, German RWE and Hungary's FGSZ.
Dolezal also stressed that the project is open for new shareholders.
One of the new potential shareholders in the project, according to Dolezal, is Germany's Bayerngas. Nabucco consortium expects the results of the negotiations with the company on joining the project by late 2012.
Meanwhile, Dolezal underlined that the consortium is also open for the shareholders from the producer side.
"We have seen that there is interest from Shah Deniz consortium partners, and we appreciate it as a positive aspect," Dolezal said.
In June the Shah Deniz consortium selected Nabucco West as the single pipeline option for the potential export of Shah Deniz Stage 2 gas to Central Europe. The final decision on pipeline export route is expected in 2013.
Dolezal said that the construction of the pipeline will begin as soon as the final investment decision is made on the project. The construction will take around 3-4 years.
"Our main aim is to have the pipeline ready when the producers start to produce the gas," Dolezal said.