Nabucco Cost Speculation Rises

Cost estimates of the Nabucco gas pipeline project continue to escalate.

Hungary’s National Development Minister Tamás Fellegi has commented that the projected bill for the EU based pipeline project has risen to €24-26 billion.

The price, originally pegged at €7.9 billion, was expected to increase as a result to modifications made as the process evolved. However the new estimate quoted by Fellegi is a dramatic escalation of figures presented by the EU's Energy Commissioner just less than two weeks ago.

Speaking in Bonn, Guenther Oettinger has said "... Nabucco will cost 10 to 14 billion euros."

The Nabucco consortium, which in in the midst of preparing what is has described as  a “final figure based on realistic factors,”  has maintained that the numbers being bandied about are nothing but speculation.

Hungary's MOL Group forms part of the Nabucco pipeline consortium.