( dpa ) - The Nabucco consortium will sign up a sixth partner on Tuesday evening to join the international pipeline project.
Nabucco did not confirm the identity of its newest partner, but news reports identified German utility provider RWE as the latest country to join the pipeline project designed to lower dependence on Russia.
A contract will be signed Tuesday evening at Vienna's Economy Ministry, the Austrian press agency said. Spokesmen from RWE and Austria's OMV, a key partner in the project, declined to comment.
The 5-billion-euro (7.4 billion-dollar) pipeline will from 2009 onwards transport gas from the Caspian Sea to Austria via Turkey and the Balkans.
Nabucco is jointly owned by energy companies in the transit countries Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Hungary and Austria.
On Monday, speaking to journalists on the occasion of the visit of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Romanian President Traian Basescu said France's Gaz de France would also be associated with Nabucco.