Oil and gas firm OMV is one of five companies proposing to build the Nabucco gas pipeline for $6 billion from Turkey to Austria via Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary in order to feed Europe’s growing hunger for imported gas. A pipeline official said results of a feasibility study would be presented to the consortium’s steering committee in mid-December. After that, the consortium would decide in December or January on how to proceed.
“We hope the consortium will go ahead, that the project will be realized,” the official said. The pipeline would give Europe a new supply line for Iranian or Caspian gas via Turkey.
OMV’s partners in the consortium are Turkey’s state natural gas company Botas, Hungarian oil and gas firm MOL, Romania’s Transgaz, and Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz. The consortium in August named Dutch bank ABN AMRO as financial adviser to the project.
Turkish officials said construction of the 3,200-km pipeline could begin in mid-2006 with operation starting in late 2009. The pipeline would have a starting capacity of 4-5 billion cum/yr, and wind up carrying as much as 30 billion cum/yr. Once at the Austrian terminal in Baumgarten, the gas could be moved through existing and expanded pipelines to Germany, France, Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia. Construction of a new pipeline to the Czech Republic would also be a possibility.