The 2,000-kilometer part of the project that will start at the borderline between Georgia and Iran will be constructed in Turkey, while 400 kilometers will stretch through Bulgaria, 460 kilometers will go through Romania, 390 kilometers through Hungary and 46 kilometers through Austria. The total cost of the project will reportedly be around $8 billion. Initial work for the project was launched in 2002 and the Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH was founded in 2005 by the project partners to make sure that the project would be executed by one center.
Like other similar examples in the world and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline project, an intergovernmental agreement was signed to frame the mutual responsibilities of the countries involved in the project, their support for the project and the project stakeholders; in addition, a supplement to this agreement, the project support agreement, was also signed to outline the legislation that would be followed during implementation of the project between the project shareholders and the transition countries. The preliminary work for the intergovernmental agreement between the shareholders was concluded in December 2008. The draft of the agreement was referred by the Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH in early December 2008 to the Austrian, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian and Turkish governments. The initial phase of the negotiation process between the governments over the draft was completed in Brussels upon a call from the European Commission.
On Jan. 26 and 27 a summit was held in Budapest with the participation of heads of state, prime ministers, ministers and representatives from countries in the Caspian region and the countries through which the projected pipeline will pass. The Budapest summit was very useful in that it served as the expression of the political support for the Nabucco project by the relevant countries. The participants in the summit agreed to conclude a deal in mid 2009 with respect to the details on the implementation of the project. The European Investment Bank has announced that it will cover one-fourth of the expenses of the project. Azerbaijan has also pledged support for the project. Egypt expressed its eagerness to join it; in addition, Iraq will be allowed to join the project provided that it improves the conditions at the Mansouriya natural gas fields.
Energy supply security has become an important issue for European Union countries and others in Europe after visible crises between the Russian Federation and Ukraine in January 2006 and January 2009. Europe does not have direct access to the natural gas resources in the Caspian region or the Middle East. The EU receives 40 percent of its total natural gas imports from the Russian Federation through pipelines crossing Ukraine; in addition, reports suggest that Europe's natural gas consumption will go up by 70 percent by 2030. For this reason, Nabucco, expected to come to life in 2013, is an important project because it has the potential to offer additional sources.
Nabucco now bears a very different meaning than expressed in Verdi's famous work, "Nabucco," an opera about the Babylonian King Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar), who destroyed Jerusalem and took the Jews to Babylon as prisoners. It has become the name and title of an important energy line that will bridge the East and the West.
