Nabucco pipeline

The Nabucco pipeline (also referred as Turkey–Austria gas pipeline) was a failed natural gas pipeline project from Erzurum, Turkey, to Baumgarten an der March, Austria to diversify natural gas suppliers and delivery routes for Europe. The pipeline was to lessen European dependence on Russian energy. The project was backed by several European Union states and the United States and was seen as a rival to the Gazprom-Eni South Stream pipeline project. The main supplier was to be Iraq with potential supplies from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Egypt.

The project was developed by a consortium of six companies. Preparations started in 2002 and the intergovernmental agreement among Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria was signed on 13 July 2009. After an announcement of the construction of TANAP, the consortium submitted the Nabucco-West project, which was to run from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria. It was a modification of the original Nabucco Pipeline project. The main supply for Nabucco-West was to be the Shah Deniz gas through the now operational Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP). After the Shah Deniz consortium decided to prefer the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline over Nabucco, the Nabucco pipeline plan was finally aborted in June 2013.