The European Commission has for the first time given a positive rating
to the Southern Stream gas pipeline, Russian Energy Minister Sergey
Shmatko said, RIA Novosti reports.
The minister presented the project in Brussels, where European
Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger made a report.
Oettinger said that there will be no limitations to the project.
Shmatko said that Russia and the EU signed an inter-government deal on
the project.
Gazprom head Alexey Miller underlined that the Southern Stream is a
real project.
The Southern Stream involves construction of a gas pipeline from the
Black Sea to the Southern and Central Europe. It became an important
project after the gas conflict of Russia and Ukraine in late
2008-early 2009, when gas supplies for EU consumers were halted for
almost a month.
The project will have four lines transporting 15.57 billion cubic
meters each. The first will be launched on December 30, 2015. Each
line will be launched per year. Full capacity of 63 billion cubic
meters will be reached in 2018.
