On Saturday Russia and Bulgaria signed a roadmap agreement to speed up the building of the Russian-led natural gas pipeline 'South Stream' on Bulgarian territory, Reuters reports.
Bulgaria, a member of the European Union, agreed to push ahead with the pipeline, which aims to ship up to 63 billion cubic metres of Russian gas per year under the Black Sea to central and southern Europe, after Moscow committed to lower gas prices for Bulgaria.
South Stream was designed to bypass Ukraine in transporting Russian gas to Europe and is expected to become operational in 2015. It is a rival to the EU-backed Nabucco pipeline, designed to bring gas from Central Asia and the Middle East.
We are now speeding up the work on South Stream," Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko told reporters. "We have no outstanding issues and we also put an end to the participation of intermediaries."
