Potential shippers of natural gas can register interest in booking capacity in the Nabucco West pipeline with the launch of the open season, UPI reported citing the Nabucco consortium. The Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH announced on Monday the launch of the open season process for booking capacity on the pipeline planned from Turkey. In this stage, potential shippers can provide non-binding bookings in the project that is backed by the state-owned gas companies of Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey, along with Austrian OMV and Hungarian MOL. Shippers will be able to submit binding bids starting the third quarter of this year. Last week, the BP-led consortium managing the Shah Deniz natural gas field offshore Azerbaijan said it started vetting Nabucco and the rival Trans-Adriatic Pipeline for delivery options to Europe. A decision is expected next month. Both projects are part of the Southern Corridor, a network of gas transit options meant to bypass Russian sources supplying the European energy sector.