By Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels, Sean Carney in Prague and Emre Peker in Istanbul 

BRUSSELS--The European Union sought Tuesday to deflect responsibility for Russia's plan to abandon an ambitious natural-gas pipeline through Europe amid questions about whether the project was truly dead.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's surprise announcement that he would drop the South Stream pipeline under the Black Sea to Bulgaria in favor of an alternative route through Turkey put the EU in a complicated spot.

Brussels has been working to reduce Europe's heavy reliance on Russian energy, an effort that took on added urgency this year with the conflict in Ukraine--a major transit country. But until alternative suppliers have been secured, European countries, particularly in the southeast, remain vulnerable to any cutoff in shipments.

While the route via Turkey could supply gas to Bulgaria, Greece and other countries in the region, it won't be as extensive as South Stream, which was to stretch as far as Austria.

Launched with much fanfare two years ago, the $20-billion project ran into trouble earlier this year when EU antitrust authorities said Russia's OAO Gazprom, as half-owner of the pipeline, couldn't control its entire capacity as well.

After Russia challenged EU competition and energy market rules at the World Trade Organization in April, the EU halted all talks with Moscow on the project.

Monday night in Ankara, Mr. Putin blamed the EU for his decision to drop South Stream. But officials in Brussels rejected that blame and said talks would resume.

"Gas pipelines in Europe must be built and operated in line with EU legislation," said Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, an EU spokeswoman for energy matters.

She also said a previously scheduled meeting with the energy ministers involved in South Stream would take place next week to discuss how the project could be workable under EU law.

Russia said Tuesday that it was intending to deliver its gas to other regions. "Those who 'buried' this project should calculate the consequences," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.

However, analysts played down Russia's abilities to sell large quantities of natural gas outside Europe.

"There is no other market," said Christian Egenhofer, a senior fellow at Brussels-based think tank Centre for European Policy Studies. "So this is not really a threat."

Russia has been seeking to strengthen economic ties with countries that haven't joined EU and U.S. sanctions over the Kremlin's intervention in Ukraine, including Turkey and China. But the Turkish market is relatively limited and a new deal to send more natural gas to China has been delayed.

Europe's other options include the Southern Gas Corridor project, which would bring central Asian and Middle Eastern gas to Europe through Turkey and Greece. In addition, Slovak pipeline operator Eustream said Tuesday it is starting talks with potential partners to connect Western European pipeline networks with eastern and southeast Europe to help wean the region off Russian gas. But any such projects would also take years to realize.

Officials in countries that stood to benefit from South Stream questioned whether Russia's decision was final or a political ploy to gain more favorable terms.

"This is a tactical step from Russia; this is not a final decision. This is a tool for pressure on Bulgaria," Martin Dimitrov, the deputy chairman of the energy committee in Bulgaria's parliament, told Bulgarian Radio.

Serbia's government, a 50% stakeholder in the Serbian section of South Stream, said it was waiting for official clarification from Moscow.

Saipem SpA, a unit of Italian energy company Eni SpA that has a EUR2 billion ($2.5 billion) contract to install the first sub-sea line for South Stream, said Tuesday it hadn't been contacted and is continuing to carry out its work. A Saipem ship in charge of laying the pipes left Bulgaria on Monday for the Russian Black Sea coast.

Analysts at Bernstein Research noted that significant resources have already been invested in the project.

"Hence purely from a project economic stand point it would not be an easy decision to make," they said in a note. "We think it is possible that the decision may be reversed."

Others voiced doubts that the alternative route through Turkey to Greece would turn out to be more viable than South Stream, in part because Gazprom wouldn't be free of negotiations with a transit country, which it had hoped to avoid in bypassing Ukraine.

Hasan Ozertem, an energy analyst at the International Strategic Research Organization in Ankara, cautioned that the ruble selloff and capital flight from Russia this year will make financing such a project more difficult--especially since the Turkey route is poised to be less lucrative than South Stream.

"The observation that Turkey is the alternative to the South Stream is very ambitious; we must wait a bit longer," he said.

Eric Sylvers and James Marson contributed to this article.

Write to Gabriele Steinhauser at gabriele.steinhauser@wsj.com, Sean Carney at sean.carney@wsj.com and Emre Peker at emre.peker@wsj.com

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