Contractors for the Bulgarian section of South Stream to be chosen on March 23rd

The contractors for the Bulgarian section of the South Stream gas pipeline will be selected on March 23rd, the final investment decision on the section will be made by November, Gazprom OAO reports.
A working meeting of the chairman of Gazprom, A. Miller, and the executive director of Bulgargaz, D. Gogov, took place in Moscow on Monday. The participants of the meeting considered the important issues of the 2-party cooperation as well as the perspectives of development of the gas market of Bulgaria with the participation of Russia. In particular, the parties discussed the conditions of the Russian gas supply to Bulgaria this year.
Moreover, A. Miller and D. Gogov paid attention to the realization of the South Stream project. On March 23rd the tender is to be completed and the contractor for the execution of works on the territorial planning, assessment of the influence on the environment and preparation of the project documentation of the pipeline gas in Bulgaria is to be selected. The parties also confirmed the intention to make the final investment decision by the Bulgarian site of South Stream by November 2012, is reported.
The export of the Russian natural gas to Bulgaria has been realized since 1974. In 2011 the exports volume made up 2.81 bln cubic meters.
Executing the measures of the road map on October 25th 2010 Gazprom and the Energy Holding of Bulgaria signed the agreement on the execution of the technical and economic assessment of the Bulgarian site of the South Stream. Later, on November 13th 2010, the companies signed the shareholder agreement and the rules and regulations of the joint project company South stream Bulgaria AD founded on the parity basis for the realization of the South stream project on the territory of Bulgaria. In December 2010 the JV was registered. Gazprom and the Energy Holding of Bulgaria on December 16th 2011 completed the procedure of legal registration of the executed works on the preparation of the technical and economic assessment of the Bulgarian site of South Stream.
Bulgargas is a 100% affiliate of the Energy Holding of Bulgaria.
According to the website of Gazprom, at the present time 5 variants of the gas pipeline’s laying are being considered: Russia – Bulgaria – Serbia-Hungary-Austria; Russia- Bulgaria- Serbia- Hungary- Slovenia, Bulgaria-Greece-Italy; as well as a variant taking into account all the above mentioned. Besides this, a variant of the gas pipeline Russia-Romania-Serbia and further on is being considered. The offset from the route is planned for Croatia from Serbia. So in these variants of the route Macedonia, which was interested in the project, Montenegro, which has decided to join in February, are not taken into account.
The final route of the gas pipeline was planned to be determined together with making the investment decision in November.
On December 2011 Turkey issued for Russia the final permission for laying the South Stream in its waters, having eliminated the last obstacle in this project. After that the Prime Minister of Russia, V. Putin, on December 30th ordered Gazprom to accelerate the start of the realization of the South Stream by starting its construction in 2012, but not in 2013 was had earlier been planned. Now Gazprom has prepared a new schedule of the gas pipeline’s construction which will start in December 2012. The President of Russia, D. Medvedev, ordered to construct the South Stream in the variant of the maximum capacity – 63 bln cubic meters a year.
Gazprom doesn’t report for how long the launch of the gas pipeline might be postponed. However, in November 2010 the head of the holding, A. Miller, said that with the agreement of all the positions of all the parties, the pipe might be launched 4 months earlier, but not in December 2015 as was planned.
The South Stream pipeline is being realized with the aim of the diversification of the natural gas supply routes to the European consumers. For the realization of the land part of the project Russia has signed intergovernmental agreements with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, Croatia and Austria. In Q3 2011 the development of the technical and economic assessment of South Stream was over, it comprised the technical and economic assessment of the sea part and the technical and economic assessment of the sites on the territory of the Central and Southern Europe. 
The gas pipeline is planned to have 4 branches of 15.57 bln cubic meters each. The launch of the first one is planned for December 2015 yet, reaching the full capacity (63 bln cubic meters) is expected by 2018. The approximate cost of South Stream is €15.5 bln, €10 bln of which is meant for the sea part, €5.5 bln – for the land.
Gazprom, Eni, Wintershall and EDF signed a shareholder agreement of the sea part of South Stream on September 16th. The stakes are the following: Gazprom-50%, Eni – 20%, Wintershall – 15% and EdF – 15%.

http://rosinvest.com/novosti/913085
Translated by Galiya Musabekova 
 

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