Germany’s RWE joins NABUCCO project

German company RWЕ has become the sixth shareholder of the project on building the NABUCCO pipeline that will take Caspian gas to European markets. The company’s participation in the project was endorsed in Vienna.

Chief executive officer of RWE Gas Midstream Stefan Judisch expressed confidence that the $6 billion project would step up the security of Europe’s gas supplies.

Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler told the ceremony that he saw no hurdles in the way of implementing the project or its delay. He noted that Turkish specialists that were involved in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan [main oil export pipeline] project will now work to make the NABUCCO route a reality.

The West-backed pipeline by-passing Russia is to pump gas from resource-rich Central Asia to Azerbaijan under the Caspian Sea, then to Georgia and Turkey and further to energy-hungry European markets. The pipe’s annual throughput capacity is estimated at 31 billion cubic meters.

The NABUCCO project will help European countries to diversify supplies of energy, while the U.S. hopes to ease rival Russia’s clout over global gas supplies. Building the 3,300-km trans-Caspian conduit could take until 2011-2012, while transportation of first gas via the pipe is expected in 2013.

RWЕ has now acquired a 16.67% stake in the project, just like the other five shareholders. The participating interests are also held by Turkish BOTAS, Romanian Transgas, Bulgarian Bulgargas, Austrian OMV, and Hungarian MOL.*