In line with earlier information, the European Investment Bank (EIB) confirmed that it will provide financing for the construction of Nabucco Pipeline for transport of natural gas from Central Asia and Middle East to Europe, bank president Philippe Maystadt said during an energy forum in Prague . Maystadt said that EIB may invest EUR 2.5bn in the facility but warned that supplies from Azerbaijan only will not be enough to fill the capacity of the pipeline. Meanwhile Azerbaijan , Georgia , Egypt , Turkey and the EU signed during the same forum mutual agreement in support of the project and to speed construction of new pipelines as a whole while Kazakhstan , Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan did not join. The latest investment estimates for Nabucco point to total costs of EUR 7.9bn instead of the initially projected EUR 5bn. The pipeline will cross the territories of Turkey , Bulgaria , Romania , Hungary and Austria . The multilateral government agreement is expected to be signed by the middle of this year. The national natural gas suppliers of the 5 countries as well as Germany ’s RWE hold equal stakes in Nabucco Gaspipeline International, the company set to run the project. The 3,300-km pipeline will have a transport capacity of 31bn cubic metres of natural gas per year (8-12bn initially from Azerbaijan ) and is expected to cover 5% of the European demand. First supplies are expected in 2013