The 3,300 km, 56 inch diameter Nabucco Pipeline will run from Turkey to Austria, crossing Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary, and is expected to have a capacity of 31 Bcm/a. The planned routes of the feeder pipelines offer a wide range of supply sources for the pipeline, which will receive gas from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Iraq. Gas will be transported to Austria before further distribution to central and western Europe through Austria.

A decision on the feeder pipelines was made after the project’s steering committee met in Ankara and the shareholders agreed on a modification of the original feeder line concept, which included sourcing gas from Iran.

The respective engineering works have been ordered for the two feeder lines. Depending on the exact routes of the proposed feeder lines, the total length of the pipeline project is estimated to increase to approximately 4,000 km.

The pipeline proponents decided against constructing a feeder line to the Turkish – Iranian border, citing the current political situation in Iran.

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Construction of the Nabucco Pipeline is scheduled to begin by the end of 2011, with first gas expected to flow by the end of 2014. The pipeline will have a wall thickness of between 20 and 36 mm. The project will require 250,000 lengths of pipe and over 2 MMt of steel. It will operate at a pressure of 100 bar, and it is estimated that 11 compressor stations will be constructed along the pipeline.

Project shareholders include OMV Gas&Power, MOL, Transgaz, Bulgarian Energy Holding, BOTAS and RWE.