The Nabucco Consortium welcomes yesterday’s decision by the Turkish parliament to ratify the treaty that will enable construction and operation of the Nabucco gas pipeline in Turkey with a secure legal framework for the gas transit. No other mooted project in the southern corridor has those secured transit rights. All countries sign-ing the Intergovernmental Agreement in Ankara on July 13th 2009 have now also ratified the treaty in the national parliaments.
“The Intergovernmental Agreement lays down the political and legal foundation for the pro-ject. The ratification in Turkey sets again a clear signal of intent to realize the project. This strong political backing for an infrastructure project is unique and is required”, states Werner Auli, Chairman of the Nabucco Steering Committee.

Reinhard Mitschek, Managing Director of the Nabucco Gas Pipeline GmbH said: “The signing of the Intergovernmental Agreement represented a significant breakthrough in the realization of the project. No other project of Nabucco dimensions has a treaty in place that guarantees gas transit under equal and transparent conditions for all customers. The ratifi-cation in all parliaments is now an important further milestone”. Germany - not a transit country and therefore not party to the agreement - stated full political support.
The Intergovernmental Agreement provides a stable legal framework for 50 years and con-firms that 50% of the pipeline’s capacity will be reserved for the shareholders and the re-maining 50% offered to third-party shippers. The treaty also lays down a solidarity mecha-nism between the signing countries and a standard tariff methodology. For the latter these conditions will apply for 25 years after the pipeline commences operation, and guarantee equal access for all market participants. Consequently the IGA provides strong comfort to the potential gas supply countries who are considering selling gas to potential shippers of Nabucco.

Nabucco project in brief Nabucco will make a significant contribution to natural gas supply security for Turkey, South-Eastern Europe and Central - and Western-Europe. The pipeline will provide access to new sources of gas for European customers and encourage competition within the international gas markets. The Nabucco gas pipeline will run for over 3,300 km from Turkey via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to Vienna, close to the Baumgarten gas hub. Currently, the pipeline shareholders include OMV Gas&Power, MOL, Transgaz, Bulgarian Energy Holding, BOTAS and RWE. The planned capacity for the final development stage is 31 billion cubic meter. The total capital investments based on the project assessments of summer 2008 was EUR 7.9 billion. Construction will start 2011, first gas will flow 2014.