Gazprom Puts Forward New South Stream Route
Russian energy giant Gazprom has tabled a new option to revive the South Stream pipeline, local media report.
Alternative routes are being studied for South Stream and Nord Stream II which would possibly use private funding, instead of counting on EU support, Vesti Finance quotes Andrey Konoplyanik, adviser to the head of Gazprom Export, as saying.
The new pipeline could possibly start from the Crimean peninsula, which Russia incorporated in March 2014. The previous version was to begin from Anapa, with an estimated length of the underwater section measuring 781. Crimea is closer to the Bulgarian Black Sea, and the project would be cheaper.
Additionally, a revived South Stream would not use the route to Central Europe through Serbia and Hungary as initially planned, but go through Greece and then offshore to Italy.
"Russia is in its right to look for gas export routes that pose the smallest risk to the fulfilling of contracts," Konoplyanik reportedly told the audience at a Central European gas forum in Bratislava.
Sofia News Agency