NABUCCO Gas Pipeline International has signed a contract with contractor Saipem to perform Front End Engineering & Design (FEED) services for the Nabucco West Project. Saipem has been selected as the appropriate provider of these services based on a competitive tender process launched in September 2012.

The contract includes all FEED activities for the 48 inch� diameter, 1326 km pipeline system. This includes strategic analysis of data and information to conduct appropriate risk assessments and allocation of resources across the pipeline to ensure the continued successful development of the project.

This re-feed for the NABUCCO West project is being conducted following the selection of the project as the Central European route by the Shah Deniz consortium in June last year. This work will build upon existing engineering work already completed for the 56 inch diameter, 3900 km NABUCCO classic route.

In January 2013, the NABUCCO Shareholders signed a Cooperation Agreement, as well as an Equity Option and Funding Agreement, with the shareholders of the Shah Deniz gas field.

The NABUCCO West pipeline is planned to take Caspian Region gas from the Turkish-Bulgarian border via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to the Central European Gas Hub at Baumgarten. As a central component of the Southern Gas Corridor, NABUCCO West is ideally placed to diversify gas supply to over 500 million potential customers in the growing economies of South Eastern Europe as well as onward into Western Europe.