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State and government officials of 18 countries to join Nabucco signing ceremony

09 July 2009 14:30 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov â€“ APA. State and government officials of 18 countries will join the ceremony of signing Nabucco project in Ankara on July 13, 2009, APA-Economics reports quoting Turkeyâ€™s ANKA agency.

Hungary, Austria and Bulgaria, which will sign an agreement alongside with Turkey, will be represented in the ceremony by prime ministers and Romania â€“ by the president. Only Iran from the regional countries was not invited to the event.

State and government officials of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iraq and Egypt, as well as US Special envoy for Eurasian energy issues Richard Morningstar and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili will also participate at the ceremony.

Azerbaijan was also invited to the event, but it was not specified yet who will represent Azerbaijan there.

The Nabucco pipeline is a planned natural gas pipeline that will transport the Caspian natural gas from Turkey to Austria, via Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary. It will run from Erzurum in Turkey to Baumgarten an der March, a major natural gas hub in Austria. This pipeline is a diversion from the current methods of importing natural gas solely from Russia. The project is backed by several European Union states and the United States. OMV of Austria, MOL of Hungary, Bulgargaz of Bulgaria, Transgaz of Romania and BOTAÅž of Turkey joined Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH consortium. Total investment coast of the project was increased recently from 4.6 billion euro to 7.9 billion euro (12.3 billion USD).

The name Nabucco comes from the same famous opera of Giuseppe Verdi dedicated to Babylon king. The pipeline will run from Erzurum in Turkey to Baumgarten an der March in Austria with total length of 3,300 kilometers. First part of natural gas is planned to be pumped in 2013.