The Nabucco gas pipeline is a 3.3 thousand kilometer long pipeline. With the help of it, fuel can be delivered from Azerbaijan and Central Asia to the EU countries. Nabucco is a gas pipeline that was supposed to supply primarily Germany and Austria. Its name comes from the eponymous work of the famous composer Giuseppe Verdi. The main theme of his opera is liberation, which was supposed to contribute to the new highway for the supply of fuel to Europe.
Project history
The beginning of the development of a new highway began in February 2002 under the name Nabucco. The pipeline was initially negotiated by two companies: the Austrian OMV and the Turkish BOTAS. Later, four more joined them: Hungarian, German, Bulgarian and Romanian. Together they signed a protocol of intent. At the end of 2003, after calculating the necessary expenses, the European Commission provided a grant in the amount of 50% of the total amount. After the initial development of the project, the partners signed a final agreement. In June 2008, the first fuel supply from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria was carried out through the Nabucco gas pipeline.
Strategic importance of the project
In the winter of 2009, the EU once again realized their catastrophic energy dependence on the Russian Federation. As a result of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, residents of some European countries found themselves without heat in their homes. In early 2010, a summit was held in Budapest, the main issue of which was the Nabucco gas pipeline. Its main objective was to diversify fuel flows. In July, a special intergovernmental agreement was signed by five prime ministers.
Stakeholders in the project were the EU, represented by President M. Barroso and Energy Commissioner A. Piebalgs, and the United States was represented by Eurasian Energy Envoy R. Morningesar and Foreign Minister Senator R. Lugar. Hungary ratified the agreement on October 20, 2009, Bulgaria on February 3, 2010, and Turkey on March 4, 2010. The Nabucco gas pipeline received additional support with the publication of an additional intergovernmental agreement between all the states involved in it.
Current state
In May 2012, the Shah Deniz consortium introduced a new proposal - the Nabucco-West gas pipeline. Already a year later, an agreement was signed on its financing. According to it, the Shah Deniz consortium will pay 50% of the costs of the new project, and the transit country will pay the remaining half. In 2013, a memorandum was signed, but in the summer it was announced that investments would be made in the Trans-Adriatic gas pipeline. The executive director of the Austrian company OMV said that the project was suspended. Therefore, the Nabucco gas pipeline today has lost its strategic importance, but recently Bulgaria and Azerbaijan again asked the EU for its revival. What will come of it - time will tell.
Nabucco gas pipeline: scheme
The planned length of the route was 3893 kilometers. It was supposed to begin in Ahiboz (Turkey) and end in the Baumgarten vault (Austria). It would also pass through three more countries: Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. But actually, it was not in Ahibibos that the Nabucco gas pipeline was supposed to begin. The project route also included Georgia and Iraq. In Achibose, it was supposed to be connected precisely with their highways. The modified Nabucco-West gas pipeline was a more modest project and was supposed to begin on the Turkish-Bulgarian border. Its estimated length was 1329 kilometers. The shortened gas pipeline was supposed to pass through the territory of four states: Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Austria. The Polish company PGNiG at one time studied the possibility of connecting the state to Nabucco.
Specifications
The Nabucco-West gas pipeline was not expected to be taxed for 25 years from launch. Its throughput was to be 10 billion cubic meters per year. Half of the gas transported would be delivered to countries not directly involved in the project. In the presence of demand, the throughput could be raised by an additional 13 billion cubic meters.
Construction
The Nabucco project is part of a program for the development of the Trans-European Energy Network, and its development was carried out with money from a grant. When it was transformed, then all engineering work had to be continued. Construction was scheduled to begin in 2013. Nabucco was supposed to start functioning fully by 2017. But the Shah Deniz consortium chose another project for financing, so for now this remains frozen.
Financing
The cost of the Nabucco project was never disclosed, but in 2012 R. Micek said that it was much less than 7.9 billion euros. The final settlement was expected by the end of 2013. Today, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan are conducting special studies in order to prove the profitability of the construction of this gas pipeline.
Pipeline filling sources
The basis of the project is the already constructed Baku-Tbilisi highway. Deliveries from Central Asia, primarily from Turkmenistan, were supposed to be made there. There was a proposal to lay a gas pipeline through Armenia, but this caused an extremely negative reaction in Azerbaijan itself. Poland planned to branch off Nabucco into its territory through Slovakia.
Initially, it was planned to transport fuel from Iran through a gas pipeline, but the conflict began there. At the summit in Budapest, this country has not been represented. The only source of filling that remained by 2013 was in Azerbaijan - the Shah Deniz field. But now the Caspian gas pipeline draws reserves from it. Managing Director of Nabucco R. Mitchek considers the possible accession of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Egypt and even Russia.
