The EU-backed Nabucco gas pipeline, which is intended to transfer gas from Turkey to Austria, through Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary “seems to be losing momentum for the time being,” according to a Greek energy news website.

While Europe wants to have gas pipelines that are not dependent on Russia, it lacks unity on a long-term energy policy, “Russia seems for the time to be the most reliable supplier and the dominant player in this energy battlefield,” energia.gr said.

Russia and Italian company Eni agreed on a plan to build South Stream, a gas pipeline to bring Russian gas under the Black Sea to Europe.

Plans are for Nabucco to draw gas from the same deposits in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan as the Russian-Italian project.

The project — by Austria’s OMV, Turkey’s Botas, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz, Hungary’s MOL and Romania’s Transgas — had financial problems and was behind schedule, energia.gr said.

On the other hand, the South Stream pipeline, which will be more than three times shorter, will come ashore in Bulgaria and will branch off, towards Slovenia and Austria and towards Italy.

Russian energy minister Viktor Hristenko said that the 30 billion cubic metre pipeline could also supply Greece and Bulgaria.