Hungarian company MOL will probably leave the EUR 7.9 B Nabucco natural gas pipeline project, according to the country's Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

"I'm not an expert on the details, but what I have seen is that even the Hungarian company, Mol, is leaving the whole project," Orban has told reporters in Brussels, as cited by Bloomberg. He stated that the project is "in trouble."

Nabucco, a joint venture of MOL, Germany's RWE AG (RWE), Vienna- based OMV AG (OMV), Bulgaria's Bulgargaz EAD, Romania's Transgaz SA and Ankara- based Boru Hatlari ile Petrol Tasima AS, or Botas, may be scaled down and linked up with the Trans-Anatolia Pipeline, known as Tanap, at the EU's southern border, Nabucco Managing Director Reinhard Mitschek said last month.

Nabucco was initially set to carry up to 31 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from the Caspian region to Europe. It was expected to relieve Europe's dependence on Russian gas supplies.

The construction of the 4000-kilometer pipeline was set to start in 2013 and the first gas is to flow in 2017.

On Monday, the Hungarian PM also observed that Russia-backed South Stream gas pipeline project which would run through Hungary was gaining momentum.

Later on Tuesday, the Nabucco Consortium reacted by refuting Orban's suggestion that MOL was quitting the project in a special statement.

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