Shah Deniz II Consortium in "Concrete" Talks for Nabucco Stake

The Shah Deniz II consortium is in "concrete" discussions with the Nabucco pipeline, Reuters has reported the Austrian energy minister as saying today.

Speaking at a news conference today, Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner said that the partners in the Azeri gas field, which includes BP, SOCAR and Total, are in detailed talks with the partners in the Nabucco pipeline to take a stake in that project.

"There are very concrete talks," the Minister said today.

The Nabucco pipeline is one of two pipelines in the running to transport gas from the Azeri gas field to the rest of Europe. Earlier this year, the potential pipeline routes to transport gas from the field were whittled down to just the Nabucco pipeline and the Trans-Adriatic pipeline (TAP).

A decision in February by the Shah Deniz consortium saw TAP rival, the Interconnector-Turkey-Greece-Italy (ITGI), knocked out of the running. In June this year, Nabucco rival, the South East Europe Pipeline (SEEP), was also knocked out of the running.

The Shah Deniz II consortium has now just to choose between the TAP and Nabucco pipelines.