OMV Chief Executive Officer Gerhard Roiss had recently been quoted as saying that first gas supplies would flow through Nabucco in 2018, a year later than expected.
Nabucco said Mr Roiss’ comments concerned the transit of gas, which is dependent on the timetable of the suppliers.
“We have always said that the timetable is dependent on the availability of gas sources. We are currently waiting for the decision of the Shah Deniz 2 consortium before evaluating the timeline again,” said Christian Dolezal, a spokesperson for Nabucco.
“Start of construction is still planned for 2013 and we do not currently foresee any delays. We want to finalise the construction by the end of 2017 so that everything is in place when the gas is ready for export.”
The 3,900 km, 56 inch diameter Nabucco pipeline will link the Eastern border of Turkey to Baumgarten in Austria via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Its shareholders include OMV (Austria), MOL (Hungary), Transgaz (Romania), Bulgarian Energy Holding (Bulgaria), Botas (Turkey) and RWE (Germany). Each shareholder holds an equal 16.67 per cent share in Nabucco Gas Pipeline International.