Final curtain for Nabucco?

BRUSSELS, June 22 (UPI) -- Supporters of the Nabucco gas pipeline for European markets are being forced to re-examine the project as potential suppliers balk on their commitments.

Nabucco would transit 2,050 miles from the Caspian Sea through Turkey north to European markets. Europe sees the project as a means to diversify the regional energy sector, which is dependent on Russian natural resources.

The project faces obstacles because of a lack of firm commitments from potential supplier nations, while Turkish demands for discounts delayed a pending meeting on the pipeline.

Planners had looked to gas deposits in the Kurdish territories of Iraq, but Baghdad nixed that potential for fear of emboldening separatist ambitions.

Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, meanwhile, has courted regional energy giants for commitments to its rival South Stream and Nord Stream gas projects and other ventures, draining the potential for Nabucco.

A report in the American news magazine Newsweek suggests there is no sense in moving ahead with a $10.7 billion project without the necessary gas commitments.

Meanwhile, Turkey has delayed the signing of intergovernmental agreements for the Nabucco gas pipeline but promised a move as early as July.

Mihaly Bayer, the Hungarian envoy to the project company, Nabucco Gas Pipeline International, had complained over the slow process on the agreements but joined Turkish officials saying agreements would be reached soon.