VIENNA, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- There are enough natural gas resources in Iraq and Azerbaijan to bring the Nabucco pipeline on stream by 2015, a consortium spokesman said Friday.
The European community is searching for ways to diversify its energy sector to break Russia's control over the supply of natural resources.
Europe is pressing for the so-called Southern Corridor of transit arteries that would deliver natural gas from non-Russian suppliers.
Members of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline consortium announced Thursday that the pipeline, part of the Southern Corridor, would get the bulk of its natural gas from the second phase of the Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan.
"TAP shareholders consider Caspian gas to be the initial source of supply to fill TAP's initial capacity of 353 billion cubic feet per year," the statement read.
Nabucco, meanwhile, is expected to secure gas reserves from Iraq and Azerbaijan to feed the pipeline. Christian Dolezal, a spokesman for the Nabucco pipeline consortium, told United Press International in response to e-mail questions that there was plenty of gas to go around.
"Discussions around the distribution of the Shah Deniz II gas volumes have only just started (and) no formal agreements have been reached," he said. "The Nabucco shareholders are leading these discussions on behalf of Nabucco and we are confident that there are enough resources in Azerbaijan and Iraq for Nabucco to come into operation in 2015."
Nabucco announced last week that the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank signed a mandate letter to back the project.
