VIENNA, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- The Nabucco pipeline consortium is "definitely in the running" for the available natural gas from Azerbaijan, a spokesman for the consortium said Friday.
Azerbaijan is weighing proposals for resources from its Shah Deniz 2 gas field from pipeline consortiums involved in the so-called Southern Corridor of transit networks. Of those, the Nabucco pipeline would be the most ambitious as it would stretch from the eastern border of Turkey to the northern border of Austria in order to deliver non-Russia gas supplies to European consumers.
Christian Dolezal, a spokesman for the Vienna-based pipeline consortium, told United Press International, in response to e-mail questions, that he was optimistic about Nabucco's prospects.
"We submitted all required comprehensive information about Nabucco on time to the Shah Deniz 2 consortium and we are expecting feedback as soon as possible," he said. "Nabucco is definitely in the running but we are not commenting further on rumors or speculations."
Reports from various Azeri news agencies note there is some momentum behind Nabucco in terms of financial support. Some members of the consortium, however, said they questioned some of the timelines for the project.
State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan President Rovnaq Abdullayev had said Baku's assessment of the projects -- Nabucco, the Interconnector Turkey-Greece and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline -- would be finished by the end of the year.
