Nabucco pipeline 'still an option,' says Azerbaijan oil firm

(VIENNA) - Europe's gas pipeline project Nabucco is still possible, a vice-president of Azerbaijan's state-owned energy company SOCAR said in an interview with the Austrian daily Die Presse published on Tuesday.

"For us, Nabucco remains an option," Elshad Nassirov said, following reports the project may be abandoned.

"If the EU gets gas promises from Turkmenistan, Nabucco is still possible. We will have to decide ourselves by end of June," he added.

Nabucco has had difficulty getting commitments of gas supplies, prompting talk of other options.

In December, Turkey signed a deal with Azerbaijan to build the so-called Trans-Anatolia Pipeline to carry Azeri gas to European markets, casting further doubt on Nabucco.

"The Trans-Anatolia Pipeline (TANAP) which was proposed as an alternative for the section via Turkey is still only a concept," Nassirov told Die Presse.

But he noted it was "the most advantageous option on Turkish territory," for the producers of the Shah Deniz gas field project off the Azerbaijani coast, which Nabucco hopes to tap.

"TANAP... would be smaller and cheaper than Nabucco, but could later be extended to take gas from other reserves," said Nassirov, adding that companies involved in Nabucco, like Austria's OMV and Germany's RWE, could also be part of this project.

The Shah Deniz consortium, which SOCAR belongs to, is expected to choose next year which pipeline -- including Nabucco -- it would use to transit gas onwards from Turkey.

The 4,000-km (2,500-mile) Nabucco project, meant to bring Caspian gas to Europe while bypassing Russia, has long been delayed, with construction now set to begin in 2013.

Recent talk meanwhile has been of shortening the 7.9-billion-euro ($10 billion) project -- which is backed by a consortium including OMV, RWE, Hungary's MOL, Romania's Transgaz, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz and Turkey's Botas -- and build instead a 1,300-kilometre "Nabucco West."