Iran wants to resurrect Nabucco West, the shelved pipeline initiative that would have supplied the Balkans and Central Europe with gas from the Caspian Sea, Tehran’s ambassador to Sophia Abdollah Noroozil told Prime Minister Boyko Borisov earlier this week.
First tabled in 2002 Nabucco West was seen as a northern extension of the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) that would have transported gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz-2 field in the Caspian Sea via Turkey , Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania on to Austria.
At the time, Iran was also seen as a major gas supplier to the project, but was expelled in 2008 when it fell out with the West over its nuclear programme. The project was shelved in 2013 when the Shah Deniz consortium announced that it had chosen the western Trans Adriatic Pipeline route instead.
Bulgaria could become the distribution centre for the new pipeline, Norrozil suggested, an idea that may have appealed to Borisov and his colleagues, who are still smarting from Moscow’s decision to abandon the South Stream pipeline project that would have run through their country’ s territory in favour of the Turkish Stream route that is now like to follow a route through Greece.
Iran approaches Bulgaria about resurrecting Nabucco pipeline project
Nabucco pipeline route
Source: Rosbalt