A project like Nabucco should be preferred by Romania, compared to South Stream, which could even become prejudicial "because it maintains a monopoly that everyone would rather get rid of", said the president of the Rompetrol group, Dinu Patriciu, in an interview for Realitatea FM. Russia currently encourages - through its natural gas giant, Gazprom - the construction of South Stream.

A project like Nabucco, in Patriciu's view, means a pipeline going beyond the Caspian Sea, collecting resources from the Central Asia.

Gazprom and the Italian company Eni intend to develop the South Stream project, below the Black Sea waters, the pipeline serving to the transport of Russian gas towards Italy, crossing Greece and Bulgaria. Another branch from the project would connect Russia and Austria, crossing Bulgaria and Serbia.

Nabucco is a project aiming at reducing the energy dependence on Russia, starting in 2013. The project involves OMV (Austria), MOL (Hungary), Transgaz (Romania), Bulgargaz (Bulgaria), Botas (Turkey) and the RWE group (Germany). The 3,300 kilometers long pipeline would cost some 7.9 billion Euros, one third supported by owners and two thirds paid via banks' financing.