Italian Minister for Economic Development Federica Guidi said that Italy will continue backing construction of Russia’s South Stream gas pipeline, which she called a strategic project, RIA Novosti reports.
Gazprom will build the pipeline under the Black Sea to diversify gas deliveries to Europe, bypassing Ukraine. Its construction started in Anapa on December 7, 2012. Four branches of the pipeline will have a capacity of about 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas. The pipeline will be launched in Q1 2016. It will start operating at the full capacity of 63 billion cubic meters a year in 2018.
