Scrapping the South Stream pipeline project is a step toward a different strategy on the European market, Russian energy giant Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller is quoted by RIA Novosti as saying on Saturday.
"Our strategy is changing with regard to the European market. The decision to scrap South Stream is the end of our way of working when we focused on delivering [gas] to the end consumer on the European market," Miller, who appeared on the Vesti v Subbotu (News on Saturday) TV show, told its host Sergey Brilev.
He confirmed that EU member states will have to purchase gas on the borders between Turkey and Greece.
Miller noted that infrastructure worth four billion euros (some $5 billion), which Gazprom has prepared for the South Stream pipeline, will be useful for a new pipeline to Turkey.
"We have invested some four billion euros in gas infrastructure on the territory of Russia with regard to South Stream to deliver gas to the Russkaya compressor station in Krasnodar Territory, and all these investments will be extremely useful for a pipeline to Turkey," he said.
The construction of South Stream was announced in 2012, with the pipeline's offshore section designed to go under the Black Sea, while its onshore section was to cross Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia. The pipeline was expected to reduce the possibility of unreliable Russian gas transit to central and southern Europe through Ukraine, becoming fully operational by 2018.
On December 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was not willing to continue the implementation of South Stream in light of the European Commission's "non-constructive" stance on the matter. Gazprom later said that Russia had no plans to revive the project.
