BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 18 (UPI) -- Shareholders in the Nabucco natural gas pipeline for Europe are determined to launch construction on the project in 2011, a spokesman said in Azerbaijan.
European lawmakers this month allocated $270 million for the Nabucco gas pipeline. The 2,000-mile pipeline is meant to break Russia's grip on the regional energy sector by moving 1.1 trillion cubic feet of Middle Eastern and Central Asian gas to Europe each year.
Christian Dolezal, the spokesman for the Nabucco gas pipeline consortium, told the Azeri news agency News.Az that Nabucco partners were optimistic about construction objectives.
"Nabucco construction will start at the end of 2011," he said. "Shareholders and the Nabucco company are determined to achieve this target."
The project struggles to secure firm commitments from potential suppliers in the Middle East and Central Asia, however.
Dolezal said a 2009 agreement between transit nations gives Nabucco an edge over the South Stream gas pipeline, a Russian rival.
Italian energy giant ENI suggested its South Stream could link to Nabucco though Dolezal dismissed the suggestion.
"The Nabucco project is highly competitive -- commercially and technically," he said. "We are fully focusing on the successful realization of the project according to the feasibility study and there is no need to change the concept."
