Brussels, 26/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - The Nabucco pan-European gas pipeline project took a further step towards becoming a reality on Friday 23 April, with the launch of a call for tenders to supply construction materials, such as pipes and steel valves. This first phase of the procurement process, worth €3.5 billion, will close on 17 May. In 2008, the total cost of the Nabucco project was estimated at €7.9 billion by the consortium responsible for its construction, which is made up by the OMV (Austria), RWE (Germany), MOL (Hungary), Transgaz (Romania), Bulgargaz (Bulgaria) and Botas (Turkey) energy companies. Work is due to begin at the end of 2011. The pipeline will initially link Turkey and Austria, with gas flowing through this section by 2014. Extension work will continue until 2016 and its capacity will be gradually increased to 31 billion m³ by 2018. (E.H./transl.rt)