The Nabucco Consortium has submitted a proposal to the Shah Deniz II consortium for the construction of a ‘Nabucco West’ pipeline, which would bring Caspian gas from the Bulgarian-Turkish border to Austria and beyond.
Nabucco West is a modified concept of the Nabucco project. The concept foresees the construction of a 1,300 km pipeline that will run from the Bulgarian-Turkish border to the Central European Gas Hub. The pipeline will pass through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary before it reaches Austria.
Source: Pipelines International
Nabucco West will benefit from the existing legal framework, namely the intergovernmental agreement, project support agreements, and third-party access exemptions as the Nabucco base case, and will follow exactly the same route on European Union territory.
The Shah Deniz Consortium has revealed that it expects to make a final route selection by mid-2013, and a decision for the Central European section in the course of June 2012.