British Petroleum plans to suggest a new construction plan for a gas pipeline to connect Azerbaijan and Europe, RIA Novosti reports.
There were three such projects, each could change the strategic energy network of Europe by forming the "southern corridor“ for Azerbaijan“s Shahr-Deniz Gas Field. 7 companies are involved in the Shah-Deniz consortium, including BP.
The existing projects are the Nabucco gas pipeline, supported by the European Commission, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline of EGL (Switzerland) (Norway“s Statoil and Germany“s E.On Ruhrgas) and an offer of the Greek-Italian consortium IGI/Poseidon, controlled by the Greek state gas company DEPA and Italy“s Edison.
The new BP project was proposed for October 1, the day when Nabucco and two of its competitors would offer own price plans. The project will be chosen in late 2011.
BP Vice-President El Cook, responsible for the company“s development of Shah-Deniz.
The Nabucco project involves construction of 4,000 km of pipeline, which will run through Turkey to gas facilities of Austria. Many businessmen call it over-politicized and lumbersome.
Financial Times said that the pipeline would import gas from Azerbaijan, the Caspian region, Turkmenistan, Iraq and the Middle East.
BP wants a smaller and cheaper gas pipeline of 1,300 km to connect Shah-Deniz with western Turkey and then running to Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to Austria.The project would be a lot cheaper than Nabucco.
Riccardo Puliti, head of the Department for Energy and Natural Resources of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said that the sides need to find the proper formula "to make the gas pipeline commercially realizable and politically attractable“.
