No Azerbaijani Gas for Nabucco Pipeline

The Shah Deniz II consortium, which operates Azerbaijan’s largest offshore gas field, informed OMV, as a shareholder of NABUCCO Gas Pipeline International Gmbh (NGPI), about the decision on their preferred gas transportation route to Europe.

The Nabucco West project was not selected by the consortium.

OMV commented:“While OMV accepts the decision of the consortium, OMV is of the opinion that the offer which was submitted by NGPI met all the selection criteria and was highly competitive. “

“The decision does not influence OMV’s strategy of growing upstream and integrated gas. OMV intends to play a role in further securing and diversifying the gas supply to Europe and will assess alternatives to complement the existing supply routes. OMV believes that a lot of highly valuable work and goodwill has been put into this project which will pay off in future projects.”

The Shah Deniz Stage 2 project will bring gas from the Caspian Sea to markets in Turkey and Europe, opening up the ‘Southern Gas Corridor’. Shah Deniz Stage 2 is expected to add a further 16 billion cubic meters per year (bcma) of gas production to the approximately 9 bcma from Shah Deniz Stage 1.

This Stage 2 development of the Shah Deniz field, which lies some 70 kilometres offshore in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea, is expected to include two new bridge-linked production platforms; 26 subsea wells to be drilled with 2 semi-submersible rigs; 500 km of subsea pipelines built at up to 550m of water depth; a 16 bcma upgrade for the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP); and expansion of the Sangachal Terminal. Further pipelines will be built and expanded to transport Shah Deniz gas through Turkey and Europe.

Even though no official confirmation has been made, reports have emerged that the Trans Adriatic Pipeline has been selected for the project by the Shah Deniz II consortium.