MOSCOW (Sputnik) — As a substitute to the South Stream, Russia's energy giant Gazprom has unveiled a plan to build a pipeline with a similar capacity across Turkey, with a gas hub on the Turkish-Greek border from which the Russian gas would flow to southern Europe. Turkish Stream gas is expected to start flowing in December 2016.
"Officials in Brussels decided that Europe doesn’t need South Stream. They refused to coordinate the construction of that large project of strategic importance to all sides…South Stream has fallen victim to Brussels bureaucracy," Medvedev said in an interview with Slovenian newspaper Delo on the eve of his visit to Slovenia.
Gazprom also announced on June 18 that it was planning to build two additional strings of the Nord Stream from Russia to Germany in a joint project with E.ON, Shell and OMV with an estimated cost of 9.9 billion euros ($11.2 billion).
"Despite this, we are willing to further develop our energy cooperation with the EU, building alternative routes to satisfy the growing energy requirements of European economies."
Nord Stream's target markets include Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Denmark and other countries.
