Nabucco 'convinced' of success

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VIENNA, May 15 (UPI) -- The Nabucco natural gas pipeline company said it's "convinced" it will be successful in its bid to secure gas from the Shah Deniz consortium in Azerbaijan.

The BP-led Shah Deniz consortium in Azerbaijan is expecting formal proposals from Nabucco West, a scaled-down version of the broader $10 billion pipeline, and the South East Europe Pipeline by Wednesday.

Christian Dolezal, a spokesman for Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH, told United Press International in response to e-mailed questions that his group was working to make its case to the Shah Deniz consortium.

"We are focusing on the submission of a competitive new offer to the Shah Deniz consortium and we are convinced that we will succeed," he said.

Nabucco West would start at the Bulgarian border with Turkey. SEEP, proposed by BP in September, would follow a similar course.

BP officials had said they would consider the complementary pipelines this week. A final decision won't be announced formally until late June.

The projects are part of an effort by the European community to break the Russian grip on the energy sector. Europe gets about 80 percent of its natural gas from Russia.