"A Troubled Pipeline
By Owen Matthews | NEWSWEEK
Nabucco, the natural-gas pipeline running from Central Asia to Austria via the Balkans and Turkey, has run into trouble from an unexpected quarter. The European Union hopes Nabucco will help break its dependence on Russian gas. However, since the project's inception, there have been nagging doubts that Caspian Sea countries will be able to provide enough gas to fill the pipeline at its source. Azerbaijan already peddles most of its gas to Turkey, while other Central Asian countries have recently pledged to sell their reserves to Russia's Gazprom. To remedy that shortfall, a consortium of gas companies from Austria, Hungary and the United Arab Emirates recently struck an $8 billion deal with Iraq's Kurds to source gas from their region, run it into the pipeline via Turkey and thus solve Nabucco's supply problems."
More:Nabucco's Kurdish Oil Deal Blocked | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com