This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/europe/8051921.stm

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Russia to sign gas pipeline deal Russia signs gas pipeline deals
(about 6 hours later)
Senior officials from the Balkans and southern Europe are in the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi to sign agreements on a new gas pipeline. The Russian state gas firm, Gazprom, has signed agreements with a number of Balkan and southern European countries on the construction of a gas pipeline.
South Stream, when built, will deliver gas from Central Asia and Russia to Italy through the Balkans. South Stream will deliver gas from Central Asia and Russia to Central Europe and Italy through the Balkans.
The project will reduce Russia's dependence on Ukraine as a transit route, and bolster Russia's position as the region's major energy supplier. The pipeline is in competition with a European Union-backed one, Nabucco.
But it has been beset by questions over its financial and technical viability. A commercial and political victory for Moscow, South Stream will undermine the EU's aim of reducing its dependence on Russian energy and diversifying supply.
Rival pipelines Rival projects
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, his Italian counterpart, Silvio Berlusconi, and top energy officials from Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia, will together negotiate joint ventures to construct and operate South Stream at a meeting in Sochi on Friday. South Stream is a highly symbolic project, revealing just how much European countries differ in their trust of Russia.
The Russian state gas company, Gazprom, wants to have the pipeline up and running by 2015. On Friday, Italy, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, four countries with close links to Russia, signed agreements in the Russian Black sea city of Sochi that will commit them to specific feasibility studies. name="goback"> class="bodl" href="#map">See Nabucco and South Stream pipeline routes
name="goback"> class="bodl" href="#map">See Nabucco and South Stream pipeline routes It is an important waypoint at a time when Europe's pipeline projects are stymied by political disagreements and the economic turndown.
It will deliver at least 30bn cubic metres of gas a year from Russia, across the bed of the Black Sea to Bulgaria before splitting into a southern branch leading to Greece, and a northern branch into Serbia, Hungary, Austria and Italy. South Stream, whose construction is expected to be completed by 2015, will deliver at least 30bn cubic metres of gas a year from Russia, under the Black Sea to Bulgaria before splitting into a southern branch leading to Greece, and a northern branch into Serbia, Hungary, Austria and Italy.
Technical and commercial assessments are already well advanced. This will lessen Russia's dependence on the existing pipelines, which cross Ukraine and Belarus, countries with which Russia over transit to European customers, a quarter of whose gas needs it supplies.
The prize for Russia in building South Stream is to lessen its dependence on the existing pipelines carrying Russian gas to Europe, which run across neighbouring Ukraine and Belarus. South Stream is a rival project to another proposed pipeline known as Nabucco.
Russia has had disputes with both countries over transit to European customers, a quarter of whose gas needs it supplies. Backed by the EU and the US as part of a long-term strategy to reduce dependence on Russian gas, Nabucco would bypass Russian and Ukrainian export routes altogether, by delivering gas from Central Asia to Europe via Turkey.
South Stream is a rival project to another, future pipeline proposed by the European Union and backed by the United States. But with a firm commitment to South Stream now given by the countries through which it will be routed, the future of Nabucco is under serious doubt.
Known as Nabucco, it would deliver gas from Central Asia to Europe via Turkey, avoiding Russia and Ukraine as transit routes altogether. Already, only one-fifth of the gas supply needed to run it has been guaranteed by the Central Asian exporters.
Nabucco has been pushed by the EU as part of its long-term strategy to reduce dependence on Russian gas. Friday's agreements again reinforce the impression that there simply is no unity among EU member states over energy policy.
However, there are serious doubts over Nabucco's viability, since only one-fifth of the gas supply needed to run it has been guaranteed by the Central Asian exporters. Russia says South Stream will make deliveries of gas to Europe more reliable than ever before, but it will dismay those European leaders who believe Russia uses energy exports to further its political aims.
Russia is taking advantage of this - and the divisions within the EU over energy strategy - to get South Stream in place.
Moscow says it will make deliveries of gas to Europe more reliable, and more stable, than ever before.
Click to returnClick to return