Fox: Shah Deniz Consortium Seeks About 50% Equity Stake in Nabucco-BP Executive
BP PLC and its partners in an Azeri natural gas field are seeking an equity stake of about 50% in the Nabucco pipeline that is competing to provide an alternative source of energy for Europe, a BP executive said Thursday. The two sides have been in talks for three months and may reach an agreement by year-end, said Alasdair Cook, BP's vice president of the $40 billion Shah Deniz development, in an interview at the Atlantic Council's energy conference in Istanbul.
BP and Socar, Azerbaijan's state-oil company, have been leading the three-month-old effort that mirrors an agreement struck earlier this year with the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, or TAP, where members of the Shah Deniz consortium took an equity stake and started funding engineering costs, Mr. Cook said.
Companies are rushing to provide Azeri gas to the European market in an effort to wean the region off Russian gas. The consortium will decide by June next year whether to transport the gas to Europe via Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH's western arm starting in Bulgaria or through TAP starting in Greece, Mr. Cook said. BP's preference is to carry the gas to Turkey's western border with the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project, or TANAP, in which the London-based oil and gas firm holds a 12% stake.