The National: Azerbaijan's natural gas pipeline to wealth

When it comes to the fate of the 50 billion cubic metres of natural gas that Azerbaijan hopes eventually to pump every year, the country is keeping all suitors on their toes.

Europe hopes to grab some of those supplies, which means one thing - a pipeline. The only question is which one.

"It's a big plan of our republic," said Mammadov Orkhan Vidadi, the head of the department of interstate economic cooperation in Azerbaijan's ministry of economic development. "And now we can only say that it's under negotiation."

In the western quest for energy security and the desire of Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries to reap the economic benefits of catering to those needs, Azerbaijan is the unlikely decision-maker.

In the many pipeline plans that have been proposed in the past decade to funnel gas to the West from countries such as Iran and Iraq, Azerbaijan's volumes are vital - meaning that when it eventually chooses to back one plan, the others will almost certainly lose out.  MORE