Romania could have a larger share of Nabucco profit

Nabucco pipeline partners will sign intergovernmental agreements in Turkey today, a step to start building the gas link through southeastern Europe. “Turkey has the most to gain, as it will host 2,000 kilometers of the total 3,300 kilometers, while Romania ranks second, with 460 kilometers, and Austria is loosing a lot,” sources close to the consortium said.

“Of course the transit agreement will also include the sharing of profit,” the General Manager of Transgaz Mediaş, Ioan Rusu, told Business Standard. State-owned Transgaz natural gas transportation company is part of the Nabucco Gas Pipeline International consortium.
Through Nabucco, Romania would gain its energetic independence from Russia, competition on the local market between suppliers would rise, and natural gas could be far less expensive, some thousands jobs would be created, orders would increase in this industry and Romania would gain increased geostrategic importance in the region.

While Hungary, Austria, and Turkey are using all their political and diplomatic weapons to have a say in the €8 billion project, supported by the European Union and the U.S., Romania only had a small role so far and did not have a say in the issue.

The intergovernmental agreement for the Nabucco transit is to be signed today by Prime Minister Emil Boc, who was presiding a government session last night in order to solve last-minute problems regarding this matter. “Nabucco is an extremely important project for Romania, for its energetic security,” Boc said recently.

President Traian Băsescu interrupted a two-day visit to two highway construction sites because of “issues that arose in the intergovernmental Nabucco agreement. However, the spokesman of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International consortium established to handle the project, Christian Dolezal, told Mediafax news agency that he has no information regarding such problems. The project, led by Austria’s OMV AG, has been delayed by a lack of commitments from customers, suppliers and transit nations. The pipe, set to send as much as 31 billion cubic meters of Caspian-region gas a year via Turkey to Austria, will operate in 2014, Christian Dolezal, a spokesman for Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH, recently said, quoted by Bloomberg. First deliveries were initially planned for 2013.

About 2,000 kilometres of the pipeline will be laid in Turkey, 400 kilometres in Bulgaria, 460 kilometres in Romania, 390 kilometres in Hungary, and 46 kilometresin Austria. The shareholders of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH are Botas AS, Bulgarian Energy Holding EAD, MOL plc, OMV Ggas & Power GMBH, RWE AG, and Transgaz SA. Each shareholder holds an equal share of 16,67% in Nabucco Gas Pipeline International.