SOFIA (Bulgaria), February 3 (SeeNews) – Bulgaria's parliament on Wednesday ratified the agreement for the construction of European Union-backed Nabucco pipeline that would carry natural gas from the Caspian region to Europe, the energy ministry in Sofia said.
The agreement between Bulgaria, Austria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey was signed last July, giving political backing to the project designed to decrease Europe's dependence on Russian gas supplies. The pipeline would be able to carry 25.5 to 31 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas to Europe by 2015, the energy ministry said in a statement.
The Nabucco project is managed by Vienna-based Nabucco Gas Pipeline International. Partners in the project company with equal stakes of 16.6% are the Bulgarian Energy Holding group, of which gas monopoly Bulgargaz is part, Botas (Turkey), Transgaz S.A. (Romania), MOL Natural Gas Transmission (Hungary), Austria’s OMV Gas and Germany’s RWE, the statement said.
Hungary has already ratified the agreement and the other partners in the project are expected to follow suit soon, Bulgarian state-run news agency BTA quoted Energy Minister Traycho Traykov as saying.
The 3,300-kilometre Nabucco pipeline worth an estimated 9.0 billion euro ($12.6 billion) will start at the Georgian/Turkish and/or Iranian/Turkish border and will link the Caspian region, the Middle East and Egypt via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary with Austria and further west with Central and Western Europe. Transit countries could receive a combined 12 to 15 bcm, while countries in central and Western Europe could get a total of 13.5 to 16 bcm, the statement said.
The project aims to reduce Europe’s reliance on Russian gas. Nabucco is considered a rival to the South Stream gas pipeline, a joint project of Russia's Gazprom and Italy's ENI, designed to carry 63 bcm of Russian gas yearly to Austria and Italy under the Black Sea and via Bulgarian territory.
($ = 0.7143 euro)