Engineering of Nabucco's pipeline route begins

Five Local FEED (Front End Engineering and Design) Engineers for Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey have been recently appointed. The British owned engineering consultant company Penspen now coordinates the planning efforts. "These local firms are currently evaluating and investigating all technical details of the entire pipeline route to realise the necessary detailed planning", explained Reinhard Mitschek, Managing Director of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International.

The results will be the prerequisite for the official approvals, the output and quality specifications and for negotiations with gas suppliers. The analysis is a substantial part of the environmental and social impact evaluation, in which the financing institutions are involved in from the start.

Reinhard Mitschek suspended his contract in OMV Gas&Power GmbH and his position as Senior Vice President of OMV Gas Logistics in April and switched 100 percent into Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH on April 1st.

The Nabucco project worth ?7.9 billion will deliver Azerbaijani and Central Asian gas to the EU. Construction of the pipeline is expected to commence in 2010. Its maximum capacity will be 31 billion cubic meters per year.  

Nabucco shareholders are the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE with 16.7 percent each.

About 30 percent of the project will be invested by Nabucco Gas Pipeline International on basis of its share. The remaining 70 percent will be provided by international institutions. The rest will be invested by export-credit agencies and commercial banks.

/Trend Capital/