Start-up of Nabucco pipeline delayed to 2017
Nabucco gas pipeline
(VIENNA) - Europe's ambitious Nabucco gas pipeline will not come until operation until 2017, two years later than planned, the head of the consortium that is building the pipeline, Reinhard Mitschek, said on Friday.
"Construction is envisaged to commence in 2013... We now expect first gas to flow through the pipeline in 2017," Mitschek said in a statement.
The timeline had changed "as a direct result of the changes in the timing for gas supplies in the Caspian and Middle East regions, as announced by potential suppliers," he explained.
Nabucco is an ambitious and hugely expensive pipeline project aimed at bringing gas from central Asia to Europe, but bypassing Russia and Ukraine, where repeated squabbles over prices have in the past left the 27-nation European Union without vital supplies of gas, sometimes in mid-winter.
Nevertheless, the consortium's shareholders -- OMV of Austria, MOL of Hungary, Romania's Transgaz, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz, BOTAS of Turkey and RWE of Germany -- have yet to sign a single contract with any of a number of potential supplier countries.
In February, Mitschek had told AFP in an interview that supply agreements "will become more concrete very soon."
In his statement on Friday, he said negotiations with the gas suppliers "are encouraging."
The so-called "Open Season process will start as soon as there are firm indications that gas supply commitments are in place," he said.
An open season is a process in which project sponsors propose a package of key terms and design parameters for a potential pipeline project to prospective customers and solicit bids for contracting capacity on that project.
"The final investment decision will be taken consequently. The Nabucco project continues to be driven by the needs of its customers," Mitschek said.
A possible re-routing of the pipeline to Iraq and away from Iran -- in view of the long-running international stand-off over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme -- is expected to add a further 550 kilometres (340 miles) to 3,900 kilometres (2,400 miles) in total.
And that will likely push the costs, already estimated at 7.9 billion euros ($11.5 billion), even higher.
Nabucco is seen as a rival to another pipeline, South Stream, backed by Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom and Italy's ENI, which aims to pump Russian gas under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and then onto other European countries.