Three consortiums racing to buy Caspian natural gas to market in Europe have submitted their proposals for Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz II gas field before a Saturday deadline.

BP source close to the matter said that the gas field is currently being developed by the British Petroleum, Statoil and Azerbaijani state oil firm SOCAR.

Nabucco had announced earlier last week that it had submitted its bid for the Azeri gas. The Interconnector Turkey, Greece and Italy and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline has also placed their bids. BP has also unveiled a pipeline plan, an alternative to the existing three. The plan was a long term idea by both the Azerbaijan government and BP.

Meanwhile, Mr Vladimir Putin PM of Russia warned EU nations that his country would be carefully monitoring an unprecedented anti trust probe launched against its powerful natural gas monopoly Gazprom. Gazprom had confirmed the offices of its trading partners were being searched by police.

(Sourced from www.hurriyetdailynews.com)