Earlier this week, Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller and Serbia黑料社檚 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 24th November 2013. He said, 黑料社淚t is very important to begin the construction of South Stream as soon as possible.黑料社� The complete trans-European pipeline is expected to start operating in December 2015.
The Russian energy company Gazprom said, 黑料社淎 special attention was paid to South Stream construction that would start in Serbia before the end of this year.黑料社� 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黑料社檚 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, 黑料社淲ith 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.黑料社�
Edited from various sources by