Nabucco in Talks With Hermes, Coface to Finance $10.3 Billion Pipeline
The Nabucco gas pipeline venture had its first round of talks with export credit companies to secure financing for the 7.9 billion-euro ($10.3 billion) link to ship fuel from the Caspian Sea to Europe.
Nabucco talked to “a long list” including Euler Hermes Kreditversicherungs AG, Coface SA, Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG, Japan Bank for International Cooperation and the U.S. Export-Import Bank, Reinhard Mitschek, managing director of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH, said today in an interview in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The pipeline is designed to carry gas more than 3,300 kilometers (2,050 miles) from Turkey to Austria to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russia. The venture on Sept. 6 said it may get as much as 4 billion euros in loans from the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank. The project’s shareholders, including Germany’s RWE AG and Vienna-based OMV AG, also plan to provide 30 percent of the financing.
Talks with the credit export agencies have focused on availability, terms and conditions, Mitschek said, adding that amounts and precise details will be discussed later. The agencies are “eager” as they want to support their markets, especially in the current export situation, he said.
While a 3.5 billion-euro tender for long-lead items including line pipes, valves and bends is being prepared, the start date hasn’t been decided, Mitschek also said.
Nabucco partners, which also include Budapest-based Mol Nyrt., Bulgargaz EAD, Romania’s Transgaz SA and Ankara-based Botas, will decide on the investment next year. Construction is set to begin in 2012 and shipments may start in 2015, the venture said on Sept. 6.
To contact the reporters on this story: Nariman Gizitdinov in Almaty at ngizitdinov@bloomberg.net; Zoe Schneeweiss in Vienna at zschneeweiss@bloomberg.net
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