Date of signing intergovernmental agreement on Nabucco gas pipeline project fixed

An intergovernmental agreement on the Nabucco gas pipeline will, with all certainty, be signed by the end of the first half of the year in spite of a slowdown in the process, BBJ newspaper of Hungry quoted Hungarian special representative to the project Mihály Bayer as saying.

The text of the agreement is expected to be finalized at an energy summit in Prague on May 8, Bayer said.

Falling demand and a downturn in corporate investments because of the economic crisis could slow the implementation of the Nabucco project, Bayer said.

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.

/Trend Capital/