Bayerngas No Longer Eyeing Stake in Nabucco Pipeline Project

FRANKFURT--Bayerngas GmbH, a publicly owned German-Austrian gas procurement vehicle, no longer seeks a stake in the Nabucco gas pipeline project that is competing to ship Caspian gas to central Europe, the company said in a statement Monday.

Talks with the Nabucco pipeline consortium, which began in October 2011, have now been abandoned, Bayerngas said.

It attributed its decision to a shift in strategy that now foresees a focus on pipeline investment in Germany.

The six existing members of the Nabucco consortium include German utility RWE AG (RWE.XE), Austria's OMV AG (OMV.VI) and Hungary's MOL Nyrt (MOL.BU), each of which holds approximately 16.7%. RWE recently said it intends to sell its stake.

Earlier this month, a group of companies that are developing a giant natural gas field in Azerbaijan--the Shah Deniz field--agreed to help fund the Nabucco project.

Under this deal the Shah Deniz consortium, comprising SOCAR--Azerbaijan's state-owned energy company--BP PLC (BP), Statoil ASA (STL.OS) and Total SA (TOT), would get a 50% stake in Nabucco if the project is selected to carry the gas to Europe.

The Nabucco consortium is competing for the gas against the Trans-Adriatic pipeline project.

Write to Jan Hromadko at [e-mail]

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