Brussels, 20/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Saturday 17 July, Bulgaria and Romania signed an agreement to speed up the construction of the Russian-Italian South Stream gas pipeline project under the Black Sea. Meeting in Varna, the Bulgarian minister for the economy, Traicho Traikov, and the Russian minister for energy, Sergei Chmatko, adopted a roadmap aimed at faster implementation of the gas pipeline project piloted by the Russian energy giant, Gazprom, and the Italian company, ENI, joined by EDF of France. They also adopted a memorandum of understanding for the supply of Russian gas to Bulgaria. The document defines a timetable for a feasibility study to be made of the 900 km gas pipeline that is to carry 30 billion cubic metres of Russian gas to Italy and Greece, passing under the Black Sea while circumventing Ukraine, as of end 2015. The agreement provides for the feasibility study and the creation of the consortium responsible for building the Bulgarian section of the pipeline to be effective in February 2011.
Gazprom has denied having invited the German energy company, RWE - one of the key players in the European Nabucco gas pipeline project, which rivals the Russian-Italian project - to take out a share in the South Stream project. “There has been a misunderstanding. We have not invited RWE to take part in this project. We don't need to. We are ready to look to see whether there are candidates that have something to bring to the project and we are willing to discuss the matter with our Italian and French partners. But there is no need for it”, the leader of the Russian gas company, Alexander Medvedev, said this week, denying the allegation. Early this week, RWE had announced it had been invited to join the Gazprom-led project. (E.H./transl.jl)