A long-running competition between two strategic energy projects to channel natural gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz II field to Europe appears to be ending. On June 28, a consortium of energy companies developing the Caspian Sea field — including BP, Total and Azerbaijani state-owned SOCAR — is expected to officially announce the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline has been chosen as its link to the Continent via the route known as the Southern Corridor. On June 26, the consortium behind the rival Nabucco West project announced that it had not been selected. Though either project would have supported Europe's efforts to diversify its energy supplies and import routes from Russia, the Trans-Adriatic project is smaller in scale and more manageable than Nabucco West, and its more southern supply route — which will run from Turkey to Italy — poses less of a strategic threat to Moscow.