The European Union's energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger Monday reiterated that the Nabucco and South Stream natural gas pipelines are not competing with each other, adding that the EU could politically support the latter Russian-backed project.

"Nabucco isn't a direct competitor of South Stream," Oettinger told delegates at a conference in the Austrian embassy in Berlin .

He added that Nabucco is slated to transport gas from previously undeveloped fields in the Caspian region to Europe . South Stream on the other hand will transport Russian gas via a different route to European consumers.

"Nabucco is new gas, South Stream is existing gas via a new route," Oettinger said.

Oettinger also said that the EU--which is backing the Nabucco project--could also support the Gazprom-led South Stream project, provided it doesn't undermine Nabucco.

"The EU won't block South Stream," Oettinger said, but added that the pipeline shouldn't target gas from smaller countries in the Caspian region.

Nabucco is competing with two other pipelines--the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, or TAP, and the Interconnector Turkey Italy Greece, or ITGI--for Caspian gas as the EU seeks to reduce its dependence on Russian supplies.

"We expect that our Russian partners don't put pressure on smaller Caspian countries," such as Azerbaijan , Oettinger said.

The Nabucco pipeline is slated to transport gas from the Caspian and Middle Eastern regions to central Europe through Turkey . The consortium consists of Austria 's OMV AG (OMV.VI), Germany 's RWE AG (RWE.XE), Turkey 's Botas , Bulgaria 's Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romania 's Transgaz and Hungary 's MOL Nyrt. (MOL.BU).

The South Stream venture, which will transport Russian gas to central and southern Europe via the Black Sea, is owned 50:50 by Italy's ENI SpA (E) and Gazprom. France 's Electricite de France SA (EDF.FR) is to take a 10% stake in the project later this year.

Wintershall AG, the oil and gas production unit of German chemicals giant BASF SE (BAS.XE), last week said it intends to acquire a 15% stake in South Stream, a move that the partners hope will increase the pipeline's chances of gaining EU backing.

Oettinger said Monday that Wintershall's participation in South Stream was a "logical step" as Gazprom hopes to reduce its dependence on traditional transit countries like the Ukraine and Belarus .

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