Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has called on to reconsider the eliminated Nabucco West project.

“Proposal for the Nabucco gas pipeline was partially eliminated after imposing sanctions against Iran and now with the removal of sanctions the ground for reconsidering the project has been laid,” Larijani said at a meeting with Andra Rupprechter, Austrian Federal Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, IRNA reported.

In turn, Andra Rupprechter said that industrial cooperation including the Nabucco West project is of high importance for Austria.

He further described converting gas into new forms of energy as an important issue for Austria.

The concept of the Nabucco West project envisaged the construction of 1,300-kilometer pipeline (412 kilometers running through Bulgaria, 469 kilometers – Romania, 384 kilometers – Hungary, 47 kilometers – Austria) from Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria’s Baumgarten. Iran has also proposed to supply gas through the Nabucco.

The Nabucco West project, first mooted in 2002, envisaged transporting Caspian gas via Turkey to Europe, bypassing Russia and Iran. The principal sources for Nabucco were expected to be Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, with additional contributions from Kazakhstan.

The optimal route for transporting Turkmen and Kazakh gas to Azerbaijan would entail the laying of a 300-kilometer gas pipeline on the bed of the Caspian Sea. However, disagreements between the participating states (over transit fees, etc.) were compounded by the failure of the EU to demonstrate real commitment to the scheme.

There were some attempts to modify the route, but in 2013 the Nabucco pipeline was finally replaced with Trans Adriatic Pipeline.