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Friday, 09 January, 2009, 22:10 GMT | more >>

Hungary offers up Nabucco draft



By Upstream staff 

Hungary has prepared the draft for an intergovernmental agreement covering the proposed €5 billion ($7.36 billion) Nabucco pipeline, adding it has given the document to the four countries which would be involved in the gas project.

Economy Ministry state secretary Abel Garamhegyi said Hungary gave the draft to the ambassadors of Romania, Bulgaria, Austria and Turkey and hoped the agreement could be finalised in the next two weeks.

"We expect from this intergovernmental agreement that it will ... significantly speed up the implementation of the project," Garamhegyi told Reuters.

The pipeline will cross Turkey and the Balkans to Austria and is a key plank of the European Union's plans to reduce its dependence on Russian gas imports. It is planned for completion in 2012.

The Nabucco consortium is equally owned by energy players in the transit countries - Austria's OMV, Hungary's MOL, Romania's Transgaz, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz and Turkey's Botas.

Earlier this month the Nabucco consortium confirmed that German utility company RWE will join the project aimed at piping gas from the Caspian to Europe.


Wednesday, 20 February, 2008, 09:49 GMT  | last updated: Wednesday, 20 February, 2008, 09:49 GMT

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