Shah Deniz Two Judging Process Begins

The consortium developing Azerbaijan's giant Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea has begun evaluating the final packages received from the two competitors to transport stage two gas to Europe, according to the Azeri news agency.

The contenders, Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH (NIC) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) had to submit all final offer documents by March 31. A final decision is due to be made in late June.

BP Azerbaijan, the operator of the Shah Deniz project, said the submissions allow the Shah Deniz consortium to conduct the final evaluation of each of the transportation options and make an informed decision on the preferred export route to European markets.

The transportation offers include detailed information about the technical, regulatory, financial and other aspects of the Nabucco West and TAP projects.

Nabucco West is a scaled-down version of Nabucco project, for a pipeline from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria. The project's shareholders are Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV, German RWE and Hungary's FGSZ.

TAP is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and further into western Europe. Its initial capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year. The shareholders in this consortium are  Axpo of Switzerland(42.5%), Norway's Statoil (42.5%), and Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas (15%).

"The submissions allow the Shah Deniz consortium to conduct the final evaluation of each of the transportation options and make an informed decision on the preferred export route to Europe," the company said.