Updates from the Great Gas Race

Nabucco managers said on September 15 that natural gas will start flowing to Europe through their pipeline in 2015, the year when the Russian alternative, South Stream, is also projected to come online.
Moscow got an important edge in the gas-to-Europe race in early September by securing a major gas sales commitment from Baku. Russian Prime Minister Vladimer Putin then tried to further dispirit Nabucco backers saying that Azerbaijan just does not have enough gas for everyone, while there are no sound supply alternatives for Nabucco. “It will be hard…if not impossible,” to make the roughly $10.3 billion Nabucco project a success, Putin said.         
The Western rival responded on September 15 that Azerbaijan will supply gas to Nabucco even before a new phase of production begins at the Caspian Sea powerhouse's giant Shah Deniz deposit. Nabucco Managing Director Reinhard Mitschek said in Baku on September 15 that Iraqi gas is going to supplement Azerbaijani supplies.  
On another front, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Romania seem to be going to town with yet another, smaller gas alternative. The three countries, now joined by Hungary, hope to set up a Caspian-European supply corridor by shipping gas in a liquefied form across the Black Sea. The trio set up a joint venture on September 14 to do a feasibility study and are now trying to attract private investment.