Azerbaijan over the past few days has been enjoying a steady stream of solicitations from gas pipeline companies. Backers of the Nabucco project -- often styled as gas-thirsty Europe's energy Excalibur -- moved to make a formal bid to export gas from Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan news reported that at least one of Nabucco's rivals, Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy, has also placed a competing bid on exporting gas from Azerbaijan’s vast Shah Deniz field.
But, as always, Azerbaijan is also looking at other rival gas pipeline proposals such as the Trans-Adriatic-Pipeline and, most recently, an alternative offer from British Petroleum. The move by BP, the biggest private player in the Azerbaijani gas exports game, threw a curve ball at Nabucco, but project executives maintained a brave face when commenting on the prospects for their recent bid.
Said Nabucco’s Managing Director Reinhard Mitschek, “We are confident that Nabucco offers the best export route for gas from Azerbaijan and other sources.”
“Other sources” is the key word here, as skeptics charge that Azerbaijan alone cannot provide enough gas to make Nabucco commercially viable. Identifying the “other sources” is complicated by a quagmire of political and economic considerations.
British Petroleum’s offer is less grandiose, but shorter and cheaper than Nabucco's. However, Nabucco is the European-Union favorite.
A response from Azerbaijan would be critical for identifying the ultimate winner, but some local commentators think that Baku may do its best to drag its feet before it makes its word final.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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