The Nabucco gas pipeline consortium may review its €7.9 billion ($10.3 billion) investment plan this year given the fall in steel prices, its Managing Director Reinhard Mitschek said on Wednesday.

The pipeline could begin in Georgia and Iran or in Ankara and the consortium would consider both alternatives positively, Mitschek told reporters in the Turkish capital of Ankara.

The €10 billion project would carry Caspian gas 3,300 km (2,051 miles) across Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to an Austrian distribution hub. It is designed to diversify gas supplies to Europe by reducing dependence on Russian gas. So far it has received scant financial commitment, and it has only a fifth of the gas commitments needed to make it viable.

The European Commission said last week €250 million would be contributed to the European Investment Bank towards funding the pipeline. Nabucco’s shareholders are Austria’s OMV, Hungary’s MOL, Romania’s Transgaz, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz, Turkey’s Botas and Germany’s RWE. (Reuters)