Azerbaijan, Baku, 10 May / Trend A.Tagiyeva /
The Energy Ministers of the Nabucco West pipeline project's member states will meet in late May in the Romanian capital of Bucharest, Romania's Energy Minister Constantin Nita, who is on an official visit to Turkey said, the Enerji Enstitusu newspaper reported on Friday.
According to Nita, Romania expects support from Turkey in the implementation of the Nabucco project.
"Today, Turkey is a leader in the region meaning its support for the Nabucco West project is extremely important," the Minister said.
The Nabucco West project is of major economic and political importance, particularly for Western and Eastern Europe, Nita said.
Nabucco West envisages the construction of 1300 kilometres of pipeline (Bulgaria - 412 km, Romania - 469 km, Hungary - 384 kilometres and Austria - 47 kilometres) from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to the Austrian Baumgarten. The gas to be produced within the second phase of the development of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field is considered as the main source for the project.
In June last year, the consortium to develop the Shah Deniz field chose the Nabucco West project as a priority route for gas supplies to South East and Central Europe. The final decision on the choice of the pipeline route is expected in June 2013.
The project's current shareholders are Austrian OMV, Hungarian FGSZ, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz and Turkish Botas.