Shah Deniz consortium begins evaluating legal obligations of Nabucco West and TAP

The consortium developing Azerbaijan's giant Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea has begun evaluating binding transportation offers from the Nabucco West and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) consortia, offering to carry Azerbaijani gas from the Shah Deniz field to Europe, BP Azerbaijan reported on Thursday.According to the report, this represents another important milestone in the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor.The two consortia, Nabucco Gas Pipeline International and TAP, have been in extensive negotiations with the Shah Deniz consortium following delivery of their initial gas transportation offers at the end of March 2013. Those offers have now been approved by their shareholders and have become final and binding, Azernews reports.The consortium also received gas sales offers for more than 30 billion cubic meters of gas per year from more than 15 different gas buyers across Europe. The gas sales offers will be considered alongside the transportation offers, Azernews says.