“Nabucco is and remains priority for Romania, no matter the project version. Our stance will adjust depending on the global evolutions,” Bode told Mediafax reporters.
The Nabucco consortium last week proposed a scaled-down version of the project, called Nabucco West. The new pipeline would be half long the initial project and would carry about one third of the originally envisaged 31 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year.
Nabucco West is projected to run from Turkey to Austria, transiting Romania and Bulgaria. The smaller version is expected to gather the necessary financing with much easiness than the parent project.
The developing consortium comprises Austrian oil group OMV, Romania’s Transgaz, German RWE, Hungary’s MOL, Bulgargaz of Bulgaria and Turkey’s Botas.
Apart from the Nabucco pipeline, Romania has planned investments in several other energy and natural gas projects, aimed to secure the country’s independence in the sector, Bode said.
“We also have the AGRI project as well the natural gas interconnection projects with the Republic of Moldova and Bulgaria,” he said.
The Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector (AGRI) is a proposed project to transport Azerbaijani natural gas to Romania, via Georgia. The project is estimated at EUR1.2 billion to EUR4.5 billion, depending on the final transport capacity.