The European Union's Nabucco pipeline project will be built because it is an economically profitable alternative to diversify the continent's gas supply, a U.S. official said Friday.
"Nabucco is absolutely on track, it makes full commercial sense," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Matthew Bryza told reporters in Brussels.
The countries involved need to remain focused on the project, he said. Bryza met recently with E.U. officials, including energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs.
The planned 3,300-kilometer pipeline, which is to transport gas to Austria from Turkey, through Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria, is seen as an important strategic project that will reduce Europe's reliance on Russian gas by importing it from Central Asia.
Transporting gas form the Caspian region to Europe through Nabucco would be about 40% cheaper than using the existing Russian infrastructure, he said.
The project makes more commercial sense than alternatives such as South Stream, another pipeline supported by Russia, Bryza said. Gas will mainly come from Azerbaijan, while Northern Iraq and other Caspian countries may also provide a share, he added.
An executive of the Nabucco building consortium said late Thursday that construction will start in 2010, one year later than previously scheduled, to "synchronize" with the output from a gas field in Azerbaijan and to do the environmental and social impact studies.
The Nabucco consortium is owned by Austria's OMV AG (OMVKY), Hungary's MOL Nyrt. (MGYOY), Turkey's Botas, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz and Romania's Transgaz. RWE AG (RWEOY), one of Germany's biggest energy companies, joined the consortium earlier this month.