Baku, Fineko/abc.az. A teleconference held last week by prime ministers Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Recep Erdogan of Turkey has advanced South Stream pipeline project, in any case in psychological plan.

Russian energy minister Sergey Shmatko claimed that energy project South Stream could be started up already in 2010 in case of successful surveys.

“I consider that South Stream has not any other alternative as to be realized. Nabucco project is not a rival for South Stream as Europe is interested in creation of maximum more quantity of transit routes to ensure market security. Next year Nabucco-South Stream contest will show who will wear the leader’s yellow jersey,” Shmatko said.

Russia has already got Turkey’s permission for relevant tests and surveys via the route of the subsea part of South Stream.

South Stream project includes creation of a new route of gas supplies to Europe through the Black Sea. It is being realized by Russia’s Gazprom and Italy’s ENI. Gazprom has already signed agreements with Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Greece and agreed preliminarily with Slovenia and Austria. The sea section of South Stream will run through the bottom of the Black Sea from Russian compressor station “Beregovaya” to the Bulgarian shore. Total length of Black Sea part of the gas pipeline will be around 900 km and maximum depth over 2,000 m. The overall part of the gas pipeline in Bulgaria will divided into two branches – south-western and north-western routes. It is expected to increase pipeline’s design capacity of 31 bn cu m up to 63 bn cu m.

Commissioning of the gas pipeline is scheduled for the end of 2015 and earlier start-up is not ruled out. According to Gazprom’s estimate, the project cost will be 8.6 bn euro.

Theoretically this pipeline will be able to supply Azeri gas. Azerbaijan already has an agreement with Russia for delivery of at least 500,000 cu m a year.

26.10.2009 08:58