SEEP Out of the Running for Shah Deniz

BP Plc, a part of the consortium leading development the Shah Deniz field, has officially dropped its own South East Europe Pipeline (SEEP) in order to back the Nabucco West pipeline.

In a statement released Thursday, BP said the maturity of the Nabucco project gave the company confidence that this route could be ready at the same time as the second stage of the Shah Deniz field.

"The Nabucco West project with a route running from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Baumgarten has been selected as the single pipeline option for the potential export of Shah Deniz Stage 2 gas to Central Europe," the statement read. "Development of the South East Europe Pipeline (SEEP) project, which had been assembled by Shah Deniz partners in collaboration with Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, will cease."

The Shah Deniz consortium will now work with the consortium behind the Nabucco pipeline to develop the scope of the pipeline as well as its technical and commercial details.

The decision means that only the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and Nabucco West are still in the running for the transit of gas to Central and South east Europe, with the ITGI pipeline also knocked out in February of this year.

Rashid Javanshir, President of the BP Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey Region, said that the decision was a significant one for the Shah Deniz project.

"We are delighted to announce the selection of the Nabucco West option, alongside our earlier selection of TAP," he said. "This represents another important milestone in the development of Shah Deniz Stage 2 and the transportation of gas resources from the Caspian to Europe.