Gazprom agrees Serbia South Stream pipeline stretch

Earlier this week, Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller and Serbia’s Prime Minister Ivica Daciac agreed the start of the construction on the Serbian stretch of the South Stream pipeline.

After meeting Gazprom officials, Ivica Daciac announced that construction will begin on the 24^th November 2013. He said, “It is very important to begin the construction of South Stream as soon as possible.” The complete trans-European pipeline is expected to start operating in December 2015.

The Russian energy company Gazprom said, “A special attention was paid to South Stream construction that would start in Serbia before the end of this year.” Gazprom is expects to finance all construction costs related to the Serbian section.

Serbian section

In March, Gazprom signed a ten year contract to supply Serbia with 53 billion m³/year of natural gas. Some of that supply would eventually travel through the South Stream, designed for an annual capacity of 2.2 trillion m³ of natural gas.

The 415 km long Serbian section of the pipeline is expected to transport up to 63 billion m³/year of natural gas to Central and Southern Europe along the Black Sea. It is meant to add diversity to Russia’s export routes through Europe, bypassing transit countries such as Ukraine.

A valuable investment

The US$ 2.3 billion project is one of the biggest investments in Serbia in recent decades. Daciac said, “With the construction of South Stream, Serbia remains consistent in implementing the Energy Agreement it signed with Russia. It is in the interest of both Serbia and Russia to implement this agreement, and it is important for Serbia because it will make our country a regional energy hub.”

Edited from various sources by Hannah Priestley-Eaton

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/12112013/gazprom_agrees_serbia_south_stream_pipeline_stretch/