VIENNA, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Nabucco can start its open-season process once shareholders get firm commitments from Azerbaijan, a consortium spokesman said from Vienna.
Azerbaijan is weighing proposals for resources from its Shah Deniz 2 gas field from pipeline consortiums involved in the so-called Southern Corridor of transit networks.
Christian Dolezal, a spokesman for the Nabucco consortium, told European news agency New Europe he was waiting for Baku to green light the project.
"The Shah Deniz consortium received the proposal from us in time and we are waiting for their decision," he was quoted as saying. "After our shareholders have firm commitments from the Shah Deniz consortium we will, can start with the open-season process."
The Nabucco pipeline, the most ambitious of the Southern Corridor projects, would carry an estimated 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year.
Last week, European Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger described Nabucco as "expensive" with a $10.9 billion price tag. He said the project was still needed to allay European energy concerns, however.
Nabucco is up against the Interconnector Turkey-Greece and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline projects. Baku said it would deliver as much as 350 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year from its Shah Deniz 2 project in the Caspian Sea through whichever project it picks.
