When it comes on-stream in 2014, the Nabucco pipeline will provide European nations with gas sourced from Iraq and Azerbaijan, the head of the project Reinhard Mitschek has confirmed.

Speaking in Vienna, the director told Reuters: "We believe that we will start up in 2014 and that the gas will be ready from Iraq."

He added that in the first year, annual delivery volume will be in the region of eight billion cubic metres (bcm), with this figure expected to double as gas sourced from Azeri fields is fed into the pipeline in 2015 and 2016.

Project partners are currently looking to secure exploration and production countries with Iraqi partners, a development which is likely to bolster the country's fragile economy and promote skills development through training and development programmes to meet construction demand.

Shell is also expected to make a return to Iraq with the imminent resolution of the terms of a multibillion-dollar upstream gas contract first signed in 2008 that will encompass training and development for local workers.

Getenergy event for Iraq October 2009