BELGRADE, August 6 (RIA Novosti) – Russia's Centrgaz, a subsidiary of gas giant Gazprom, expects that the first 30 kilometer-long section of the South Stream pipeline is to be laid by the end of this year, the Serbian president and Centrgaz CEO said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The South Stream project is of great importance for the Republic of Serbia and offers a huge chance to develop its economy and strengthen Serbia’s position in the region and in Europe,” Serbia’s leader Tomislav Nikolic said after talks with Centrgaz CEO Stanislav Anikeev in Belgrade.
In early July, Centrgaz won a tender to become the main building contractor for the Serbian section of the South Stream gas pipeline. Four companies took part in the tender, which started in March 2014. The deal is worth around $2.9 billion.
The mainstream Serbian section of the gas pipeline will have branches to Croatia and the Republika Srpska, a political entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The length of the main pipeline will be 422 kilometers and the length of the branches will be 158 kilometers.
The South Stream pipeline, expected to carry Russian gas across the Black Sea to Southern and Central European countries, is aimed at diversification of export routes for Russian gas.
The project stalled when the European Commission expressed concern that Russia’s bilateral agreements with European transit countries, namely Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovenia, violate the EU Third Energy Package. According to these legislative proposals, the pipelines in the EU cannot belong to the natural gas extractors.
