Gazprom Set to Start Construction of South Stream Section in Bulgaria by end-2013
Thursday, 01 January 1970
Russian natural gas giant Gazprom will start the construction of the Bulgarian section of South Stream pipeline by end-2013, a senior Gazprom official said at a specialised conference in Sofia.
The first phase of the construction is to be completed by 2015, the company's deputy head of project management Alexander Syromyatin was quoted as saying by think tank Natural Gas Europe, the organiser of the conference.
The Bulgarian section will be approximately 540 kilometres long with three compressor stations.
South Stream was initiated by Russia's Gazprom and Italy's Eni. The project aims to diversify gas routes within the European Union and to provide stable gas supplies from Russia to Central and Southern Europe. The pipeline will connect Varna on the Black Sea to northern Italy, via Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia.
The South Stream pipeline is expected to carry 63 billion cubic metres per year.