The first natural gas supply that would be transported by Nabucco gas pipeline would come from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria’s newspaper Banker weekly quoted Bulgargaz executive director Kiril Gegov as saying. The Nabucco gas pipeline will be 3300km long and will guarantee the supply of about 30 billion cubic metres of gas a year to Central Europe by 2015. The pipeline is considered an alternative to the Russian gas supply to Europe. Bulgargaz, Turkey’s Botas, Romania’s Transgaz, Hungary’s MOL, and Austria’s OMV set up the Nabucco Company Pipeline Study to research the project. Egypt and Iran were also probable gas suppliers for the pipeline, Gegov said. Gegov’s statement refuted fears that the Nabucco pipeline would lack suppliers and would end up under Russian Gazprom’s control, Banker said. The Nabucco Company Pipeline Study would apply for another grant loan of 3.4 to 3.5 million euro from the European Commission (CE) to speed up the project, Banker said. The company already received two million euro from the EC for the initial research. Nabucco Company Pipeline Study representatives would consider the candidates for carrying out the project on October 2, Banker said.