Romania’s Transgaz could finance between 10 and 20% of Nabucco’s costs, depending on the number of shareholders

State-controlled Transgaz Medias could finance up to 20% of the Nabucco gas pipeline project, before other shareholders joint the consortium, respectively up to 10% if companies from Shah Deniz consortium join the project. [cleeng_content id=”513668550″ description=”Buy this translation today. This article has 2153 characters with spaces. ” price=”3.24″ t=”article”]The General Assembly of Transgaz Shareholders will discuss, on April 29th, “the approval of establishing a range that includes Transgaz’s participation level in the Nabucco project, corroborated with the company’s funding possibility, between 15% and 20% before the accession of potential investors of Shah Deniz consortium, and between 7% and 10% after the accession of potential investors from Shah Deniz consortium, the percentage following to be approved by the General Meeting of Shareholders”, according to a company communique submitted on Tuesday to the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Transgaz management couldn’t be contacted for statements. Transgaz currently owns a 16.67% stake in Nabucco. The other shareholders of the project are OMV (Austria), Botas (Turkey), Bulgarian Energy Holding, MOL (Hungary) and RWE (Germany). RWE announced in late 2012 that it would leave the consortium, following to negotiate the sale of shares to OMV. Each shareholder of Nabucco International currently owns 16.67%. By taking over RWE’s shares, OMV will become the company’s biggest shareholder, with a 33.34% stake. Shah Deniz gas field, one of the world’s largest, was discovered in 1999 and is located in the deep waters of the Caspian Sea, 70km off Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku. The first phase of field development, called Shah Deniz 1, started in 2006. Production estimated for it is 9bcm of gas. The second phase of exploration is called Shah Deniz 2. Works are carried out by a consortium consisting of companies BP (UK – 25.5%), Statoil (Norway – 25.5%), SOCAR (Azerbaijan – 10%), Total (France – 10%), LukAgip (joint venture between Eni Italy and Lukoil Russia – 10%), Oil Industries Engineering & Construction (Iran, 10%) and Turkish Petroleum Overseas Company (9%). Nabucco shareholders signed in January a cooperation agreement and an option and funding agreement with the shareholders of Shah Deniz field. The agreement provides the possibility for SOCAR, BP, Statoil and Total to jointly finance the development of Nabucco pipeline and receive half of the shares. Nabucco would bring gas from the Shah Deniz field and sell it on the European market.[/cleeng_content]

Original source in Romanian: 

http://www.mediafax.ro/economic/transgaz-ar-putea-finanta-intre-10-si-20-din-costurile-nabucco-in-functie-de-numarul-actionarilor-10676594