"I hope we will take the final decision in 2010 to build the pipeline," he said, adding gas flows "it will probably be (in) 2018".
The EU-backed 3,300 kilometre pipeline, which could cost 7.9 billion euros ($10.6 billion), is designed to bring gas from Central Asia and Azerbaijan to the EU to diversify the bloc's gas sources and make it less dependent on main supplier Russia.
The project has already been subject to several delays.
But a spokesman for Germany's RWE, one of the operators in the consortium, said from Essen that there was no reasons to cast doubt on the present plans.
The Vienna-based consortium said it would send a statement later on Thursday which would clarify matters but a spokesman was not immediately able to comment on the newspaper report.
The consortium has previously said what will finally be a 31 billion cubic metre pipeline is expected to start transporting by 2014.
Other parties are Austria's OMV, Hungary's MOL and Bulgarian, Romanian and Turkish firms.
Oettinger said there will be a conference with all stakeholders in July, either in Brussels or in Istanbul.
Oettinger also said another project, Russia's South Stream to go across the bed of the Black Sea to bypass Ukraine, also needed to be built, complementing a third and most advanced project, the subsea Baltic Sea gas pipeline whose construction starts in April.
Ukraine's gas rows with Moscow have repeatedly cut off supplies to Europe.
(EurActiv with Reuters.)
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