Nabucco 2.0? - New route for Russia'n gas to Europe bypassing Ukraine jointly with Gazprom.

Nabucco 2.0? - New route for Russia'n gas to Europe bypassing Ukraine jointly with Gazprom.(Euractiv).

A new version of the defunct Nabucco gas pipeline project is being prepared, this time based on the transport of Russian gas, Austria's Die Presse has learned. Ironically, the original concept of Nabucco was precisely to carry gas from other sources than Russia.

According to the newspaper, Austria's OMV energy company is planning a new route for Russian gas to Europe bypassing Ukraine jointly with Russia’s Gazprom.

The new route appears to resurrect the defunct Nabucco West project, with one major difference: instead of carrying Azeri gas, it will transport Russian, and possibly Iranian gas, via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to the Baumgarten gas hub in Austria.

Nabucco West - a 1,326-km pipeline with a 122-cm diameter - was to take the gas from the Turkish border across Bulgaria to Romania and Hungary to the gas hub of Baumgarten near Vienna. The project was shelved in June 2013 after a consortium managing the gas, which is expected to be pumped from the offshore Shah Deniz II gas field in Azerbaijan, was awarded to the Trans-Adriatic TAP pipeline.

Now Russia is planning to bring gas to the European territory of Turkey and says it’s up to the EU to decide how to transport it further.

But in reality Russia is devising plans for a so-called Tesla pipeline across Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary to Austria.

Such a project, however, would need more time to be realised, compared to the Nabucco project, which was in an advanced phase before it was shelved.

Most of Gazprom’s clients have gas contracts which specify Baumgarten as the delivery point.

Three independent sources have reportedly confirmed to Die Presse that the new Nabucco project would be promoted by Reinhard Mitschek, the former managing director of the Nabucco consortium, in which OMV, Hungary’s MOL, Romania’s Transgaz, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz, Turkey’s Botas and Germany’s RWE each held 16.67%. Hmmm.........Seems once again i was right earlier this week when i said 'Turkish stream has become dead stream'.Read the full story here.


Update:    More on the 'Turkish stream' story here.