11/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - Nabucco will cost more than anticipated, says Oettinger. According to the energy commissioner, the planned gas pipeline, which will bring natural gas from Central Asia to the EU via the Caspian Sea and Turkey, bypassing Russia, will cost more than anticipated. The final bill may be between €12 and €15 billion, the energy commissioner indicated at a conference on energy held in Stuttgart late last week. This is considerably above the originally estimated cost of €8 billion. On Friday, the CEO of the Nabucco consortium (which is made up of following energy companies: RWE of Germany, Austria's OMV, the Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Hungary's MOL, Transgaz of Romania and the Turkish Botas), Reinhard Mitschek, announced that the gas pipeline's entry into service would be postponed until 2017, two years after the original date. The construction of the project has already been put back by one year, until 2013. Its investment plan needs to be revised to take account of the 20% extension of the gas pipeline, over a length of 3,500 km, with the addition of a connection with Iraq. (E.H./transl.fl)