The European Union is pushing for a merger of the Nabucco and Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy (ITGI) natural gas projects to secure supplies from Azerbaijan to Europe, Reuters reported Feb. 17. Media citing unnamed EU industry and political sources reported — and a Nabucco spokesman confirmed — that the European Commission is urging representatives and stakeholders of both of these projects to merge their operations to keep costs down and make the project technically and commercially viable. This is not the first time such an idea has been proposed, but this push comes as Azerbaijan is expected, within the next few months, to announce which supplier and project will get the rights to its Shah Deniz II natural gas field.