Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 11 / Trend A.Badalova /
Austrian OMV, which is one of Nabucco West shareholders, expects more companies to join the project, Euroinvestor reported.
"There will definitely be more companies joining (the consortium)," OMV CEO Gerhard Roiss said in an interview with Austrian daily Wirtschaftsblatt.
Regarding the German Bayerngas joining the consortium, Roiss said he didn't know if the company would be a shareholder or not.
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.
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.
The project's current shareholders are Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV, German RWE and Hungary's FGSZ.
In late September, 2011 Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH announced Bayerngas' intention to become the seventh shareholder in the Nabucco project.