Two European and two UAE companies said on Sunday they have formed a USD 8 M consortium to bring enough gas from Iraq's Kurdistan region for the start the Nabucco pipeline project.

The United Arab Emirates' Crescent Petroleum and affiliate Dana Gas claim there is enough gas in the fields they operate in the Kurdistan region to feed the pipeline after meeting local demand in northern Iraq and Turkey.

Austria's OMV and Hungary's MOL, two of Nabucco's initial shareholders have joined forces with Crescent and Dana to take on the gas development plan, the companies said in a joint statement on Sunday.

The EU-sponsored Nabucco project aims to decrease Europe's energy dependence on Russia. It is scheduled to link by 2013 the Caspian Sea region, Middle East and Egypt to the EU via Turkey, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.

OMV and MOL each have a 16.67 percent stake in Nabucco. Other stakeholders are Bulgaria's Bulgargaz, Romania's Transgaz, Turkey's Botas and Germany's RWE.

Nabucco's biggest rival - Moscow's proposed South Stream project - has already drawn participation pledges from Italy and Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and the Russian energy giant Gazprom signed Friday the contract for Bulgaria's participation in the South Stream gas transit pipeline.

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