Nabucco consortium believes in success of its project

Azerbaijan, Baku, April 24 / Trend A.Badalova/ The Consortium of Nabucco gas pipeline project believes in success of its project, and it sees no indication in changing Hungarian shareholder's position on it. "The project has been progressing successfully," Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH told Trend on Tuesday. According to a source in the Nabucco Gas Pipeline International, the project is based on a treaty signed and ratified by the transit countries, including Hungary. "This establishes a unique strong legal framework for lenders, producers and transportation customers. The Hungarian Shareholder is the MOL subsidiary FGSZ and we have so far no indication that this will change," the source said. Nabucco is one of the Southern gas Corridor projects, designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and Middle East to the European countries. Gas produced within the second phase of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field development is considered to be the main source for the Nabucco project. This week Bloomberg reported with the reference to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that company MOL is leaving Nabucco project. "I'm not an expert on the details, but what I have seen is that even the Hungarian company, MOL, is leaving the whole project," Orban told reporters in Brussels. MOL is a 100 percent owner of FGSZ Natural Gas Transmission Company, which is one of the six shareholders in Nabucco gas pipeline project. The project's other partners include Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV and German RWE. According to the source in Nabucco Gas Pipeline International, the project has the legal framework, which was set last year by the signing the support agreement by all transit countries. "In Hungary three out of the four environmental permits are granted, and recently Nabucco received national project status in Bulgaria as well as in Turkey. The Front End Engineering of the entire pipeline route is to 80 percent finalized," the source said. The negotiations between the Nabucco shareholders and the Shah Deniz II Consortium for gas supply are ongoing, the source added. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az