Ashti Hawrami, the natural resources minister of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq said at an energy conference in Istanbul that Iraq's oil and gas fields contain 100 trillion to 200 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

"This is more than adequate for internal use, the domestic supply of Turkey as well as to satisfy the requirements of Nabucco," Hawrami was quoted as saying by Turkish English-language newspaper Today's Zaman. "We are confident, if we can prove the full 200 trillion cubic feet, we can supply the entire needs of Nabucco."

Launched to make Europe less dependent on Russian energy imports, Nabucco is designed to transport 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year from Caspian and Middle Eastern sources to Europe. Consortium officials are optimistic that Nabucco will be fed by gas from Azerbaijan and Iraq so that the pipeline can come into operation in 2015.

However, Nabucco, backed by companies from six countries, has had trouble securing gas deliveries.

While Iraq's potential to become a key supplier is huge, the unstable security and differences between the Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq and Baghdad have slowed down progress. Both parties are rowing over shares of the profit and political power and Baghdad has said it won't recognize energy export deals struck by the KRG. Iraq's Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani was invited to the conference but didn't attend.

U.S. officials said they hope that Iraq soon clears the way for energy to be exported to Europe.

"We believe it is important and Turkey believes it is important that the Kurdish gas will ultimately be able to go north" and feed Nabucco, Richard Morningstar, the U.S. envoy for Eurasian energy, was quoted as saying at the same conference by Today's Zaman.

Iran has also been named as a potential supplier but the Nabucco consortium but the political conflicts with Tehran make such a link unlikely.

Nabucco last month said it was in talks with the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank for around $6 billion in loans -- much-needed cash as Russia is pushing hard for its rival pipeline South Stream.

Intended to move 2.2 trillion cubic feet of gas per year from Russia under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and then on to Western Europe, South Stream has already secured Central Asian gas and could be supplied with Russian sources as well.

The Russian aim is to go around Ukraine, which transports 80 percent of the Russian natural gas bound for Europe but has in the past temporarily halted supplies to Europe due to price rows with Moscow.

Observers have warned there is demand and supply for only one of the two pipelines.

earlier related report
Japanese freed by China 'didn't know' they were in army area
Tokyo (AFP) Oct 1, 2010 - A group of Japanese construction workers detained last week in China admitted filming in a military area but said they had no idea they were in a restricted zone, their company said Friday.

Three of the men were allowed to return to Tokyo on Friday, a day after their release, but one of their colleagues was still being held in China for further questioning, amid a simmering row between the Asian giants.

The employees of Tokyo-based construction company Fujita had been working on a bid to win a contract to clean up chemical weapons left over by imperial Japanese forces when they left China at the end of World War II.

China on September 20 detained the men -- Yoshiro Sasaki, 44, Hiroki Hashimoto, 39, and Junichi Iguchi, 59, as well as their colleague who remains in detention, 57-year-old Sadamu Takahashi.

The company recounted Friday how the men were detained in Shijiazhuang city in Hebei province.

"Our company's employees on September 20 drove a rental car to the site for our company's project," Tatsuro Tsuchiya, director of risk management at Fujita, told a Tokyo press conference.

"They stopped in front of a gate with a no-entry sign. They inadvertently photographed the gate. But they did not know that there was a sign behind it saying it was a military restricted area," he said.

"A military vehicle happened to come out and all of them were told to get out and the questioning started."

Sasaki told the press conference: "I want to apologise to all the people in Japan for causing such trouble.

"We entered there without knowing it was a military controlled area. It was true that we entered there, and we wrote a letter acknowledging the fact."

The company said the men were detained for questioning in separate hotel rooms, then moved to a military facility on September 24. They were allowed to meet each other for the first time on September 28.

"Questioning was conducted in a gentlemanly manner and the food and treatment at the facility were good," said Tsuchiya.

Sasaki said: "Until the release, there was no violence."

The wider China-Japan dispute was sparked by a maritime incident near a contested island chain called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

Japan arrested a Chinese captain on September 8 after his boat had collided with two Japanese coastguard vessels and later released him.

Tokyo and Beijing officially insist the detentions of the Japanese are unrelated to the wider dispute.

Sasaki said there were no questions related to the issue of the disputed islands during the authorities' investigation.

Asked if Takahashi had to remain in Chinese detention because he made allegations different from those of his fellow workers, Sasaki said: "As we were investigated separately, I don't know what Takahashi has had to say during investigation."

"I ask Chinese authorities to release Takahashi in the earliest time possible," he said.

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