The EU has refused to give Gazprom special status in the South Stream project. The Kommersant newspaper says that this allows third states to use the pipeline for gas transport.
Gazprom needed special status to put the South Stream off the third energy package of the EU. Facilities of the TEN are excluded from energy legislation.
The Trans-Adriatic Gas Pipeline and Nabucco are competitors of the South Stream and have the right to allow third states to join. Gazprom still has a chance to bypass the third energy package by signing deals on special status with whichever state the pipeline runs through.
If Europe ratifies the special legal regime, Russia would diversify gas routes. Part of them will run to the Asian-Pacific Region, Russian Deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Yanovsky told RIA Novosti.
The South Stream is intended to reduce dependence on Russian transit of fuel through Ukraine. It will run under the Black Sea from Russia to Bulgaria and split into two branches. One of them would run through Greece to Italy, the other through Serbia and Hungary to Austria. Turkey has not permitted pipeline construction yet.
The South Stream is to be built by 2015. It will transit about 63 billion cubic meters of gas and is worth 15.5 billion euros, 10 billion of which will be spent on the sea section and 5.5 billion on the land section. Shareholders of the project are Gazprom (Russia), Eni (Italy), EDF (France) and Wintershall (Germany). Gazprom holds 50% of the shares.
