July 3 (SeeNews) - Romania's Economy Minsiter Adriean Videanu said an intergovernment agreement on the EU-backed Nabucco gas pipeline project will be signed on July 13 in Turkey's capital Ankara, Reuters reported on Friday.
Turkey has delayed the signing of transit agreements by demanding 15% of Nabucco's 31 billion cubic metre (bcm) capacity throughput for its domestic usage or for re-export, Reuters reported.
"As far as I know, it [the 15% issue] is solved, but I do not know details," Reuters quoted Videanu as saying.
Earlier this week Turkish daily Aksam reported that the signing ceremony, which according to the daily was set for July 15, may be postponed due to lack of gas to feed the pipeline as Russia has agreed to buy out the available gas from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan leaving no resources for Nabucco.
The agreement was initially due to be signed by the end of June.
EU-backed Nabucco is considered as 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.
The 7.9 billion euro ($11 billion) Nabucco pipeline is planned to carry 31 bcm of Caspian natural gas a year with the aim to diversify European gas supplies and decrease Europe's dependence on Russian deliveries.
Shareholders in the Nabucco Gas Pipeline International consortium are Austria's OMV, Germany's RWE, Hungary's MOL, Turkey's Botas, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz and Romania's Transgaz.
On July 13 all partners except RWE which has no transit role in the project will sign the agreement, Reuters reported.
The 3,300-kilometre Nabucco pipeline will start at the Georgian/Turkish and/or Iranian/Turkish border and will link the Caspian region, the Middle East and Egypt via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary with Austria and further west with Central and Western Europe.
($ = 0.7151 euro)
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