Nabucco sees gas pipeline agreement in 1st quarter

By Sylvia Westall

VIENNA, Jan 5 (Reuters) - The Nabucco pipeline consortium expects an intergovernmental agreement and an EU exemption decision in the first quarter of this year, the consortium's head said on Monday.

The planned 3,300-kilometre (2,051-mile) pipeline needs to win exemption from European Union antitrust rules and an agreement between the governments whose countries the pipeline will cross.

"We are very optimistic to reach the breakthrough in Q1 2009," consortium Managing Director Reinhard Mitschek told Reuters in an e-mailed statement on Monday.

"Diversification will be even more important in light of the actual developments," he said, referring to the energy dispute between Russia and Ukraine. [ID:nL513944]

"This means the diversification of routes and sources. Therefore Nabucco is of greater importance than ever."

The Nabucco project -- designed to pump gas from the Caspian region via Turkey and the Balkans to Austria through 3,300 km (2,051 miles) of pipelines -- aims to diversify gas supplies to Europe by reducing dependence on Russian gas.

Russia cut off supplies to Ukraine on Jan. 1 over debts, pledging supplies to western Europe would be guaranteed. But some eastern European countries have reported a fall in gas volumes. Austria has not been affected so far.

Mitschek said there would be a Nabucco summit at the end of January with representatives from the European Commission, governments of countries involved in the project and from supply regions as well as institutional financial banks.

Nabucco's shareholders are Austria's OMV (OMVV.VI), Hungary's MOL MOLB.BU, Romania's Transgaz (TGNM.BX), Bulgaria's Bulgargaz, Turkey's Botas and Germany's RWE (RWEG.DE). (Editing by Sue Thomas)