Nabucco Pipeline Partners Mull Options To Cut Costs, Fast-track Project
Four of the transit countries in the Nabucco gas pipeline project - Austria, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, will search for options to lower the cost of the project and to speed up its implementation.
Meeting in Vienna on Thursday, government officials from the four countries decided that expert-level meetings should be held shortly to find solutions regarding the cost streamlining and fast implementation of the Nabucco project, Romania's economy ministry said in a statement.
Austria's OMV, the Bulgarian Energy Holding, Turkey's Botas, Romania's Transgaz, Hungary's MOL and Germany's RWE are partners in the Vienna-based Nabucco Gas Pipeline International project company, which will build and operate the facility.
In June last year, Nabucco's five transit countries, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey, signed the Project Support Agreements.
The 3,300 kilometre pipeline is designed to connect the Caspian region and the Middle East with the Turkish and European gas markets that will ensure diversification of routes and sources and contribute to the security of gas supplies.
The first gas deliveries are expected by 2017.