OMV's New Nabucco Share Could Be Sold 'In Weeks'

The chief executive of Austrian energy group OMV has hinted that sale of its recently-acquired stake in the Nabucco pipeline could take place within weeks.

"It is true that we are negotiating with someone. I can't name any names, but it might be announced in the coming weeks," Gerhard Roiss said in an interview with Austrian daily Wirtschaftsblatt.

The article was entitled Nabucco wird nie zu Grabe getragen, which means, loosely, that a Nabucco interest is not for the long haul.

"I have always clearly stated, we do not acquire the shares for OMV, we take them to facilitate the Nabucco project, and continue to pass it on," Roiss said.

In the interview Roiss also described official EU energy policy as neutral, which he said did not help. "Europe is neutral, that is the weakness of our energy policy," he said.

Last month OMV, a main shareholder in Nabucco West, bought a 17% share in the pipeline from German utility RWE for an undisclosed sum and now wants to sell it. Roiss  indicated in April that new partners were interested in joining the consortium.

Nabucco West is one of two pipeline projects in the running to bring Caspian Sea gas supplied by the Shah Deniz consortium to Europe, the other being the Trans Adriatic Pipeline. If Nabucco West wins in the imminent decision, the pipeline's shareholder structure will face another shake-up as the Shah Deniz consortium has already announced it will take a 50% share.