Shah Deniz group to decide on Nabucco route before July

(SOFIA) - The consortium developing a huge gas field in Azerbaijan will decide by the end of June whether to pick the EU's flagship Nabucco pipeline as its preferred transport route to Europe, a Nabucco representative said on Thursday.

"The pipeline selection decision for Shah Deniz's European export route is expected to be taken by the Shah Deniz Consortium by June 30, 2013," Nabucco steering committee chairman Hans Peter Floren said.

He made his remark during a meeting of Nabucco shareholders in Sofia.

If they choose Nabucco, the Shah Deniz shareholders BP, Azerbaijan's SOCAR, Norway's Statoil and France's Total will be granted "equity options of 50 percent to participate as shareholders in Nabucco Gas Pipeline International," he added.

The Shah Deniz consortium is considered a crucial supplier for the scaled-back Nabucco West pipeline, which now plans to transport 10-23 billion cubic metres of gas per year 1,300-kilometres (800 miles) from the Bulgarian-Turkish border to link up with a European pipeline network in Austria.

The BP-led consortium is however also considering another route -- the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) to Italy via Greece.

Nabucco is backed by a consortium including Austria's OMV, German RWE, Hungary's MOL, Romania's Transgaz, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz and Turkey's Botas and aims to reduce Europe's dependence on Russian gas.