New Europe: Mitschek: Nabucco West, South Stream Not At Odds

There is no real direct competition between Nabucco West and South Stream even after Gazprom decided to abandon the Russian-backed project's southern branch, from Greece via the Adriatic seabed to Italy, focusing more on the Balkans and Central Europe, Nabucco Managing Director Reinhard Mitschek told New Europe in an interview. He was speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Baku, focusing on Strategic Dialogue on the Future of the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

“We do not really see South Stream as a competitor to Nabucco West,” Mitschek adding that his consortium has “very good status of negotiations” with Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR, BP, Norway’s Statoil and France’s Total, developing the offshore Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan’s sector of the Caspian Sea. He reminded that Nabucco West has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tran-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) and discussed the technical interface with TANAP. “We have an inter-governmental agreement for Nabucco West with Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria. We have far developed engineering and the decision will be taken now in two-three months time and I’m confident Nabucco will be realised so I don’t really see a real direct competition between South Stream and Nabucco,” Mitschek said.  MORE