The Russkaya compressor station site (near Anapa, Krasnodar Territory) hosted today the celebrations dedicated to the construction start-up of the South Stream gas pipeline.

The celebrations were attended by Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, representatives of the participating countries, Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Paolo Scaroni, Chief Executive Officer of Eni, Henri Proglio, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EDF, Kurt Bock, Chairman of the BASF Board of Executive Directors, Henning Voscherau, Chairman of South Stream Transport Board of Directors, Marcel Kramer, Chief Executive Officer of South Stream Transport, Dusan Bajatovic, Chief Executive Officer of Srbijagas, Marjan Eberlinc, Director General of Plinovodi, Csaba Baji, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MVM and Mihail Andonov, Executive Director of Bulgarian Energy Holding.

In the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the high-ranking guests the gas transportation systems of Russia and Europe were symbolically welded together and inaugurated the launch of the South Stream gas pipeline construction.

“The start-up of South Stream construction is indeed a historical event. The project embodies the intention of Russia and the countries of Southern and Central Europe to strengthen the partnership in the energy sector and to create a new reliable system of Russian gas supplies to European consumers.

South Stream is a comprehensive infrastructure project that gives a powerful impetus to development of the economies in the participating countries,” said Alexey Miller.

Background

For the purpose of diversifying natural gas export routes Gazprom is constructing a gas pipeline across the Black Sea to Southern and Central Europe – the South Stream project.

The offshore section of the South Stream gas pipeline will run under the Black Sea from the Russkaya compressor station to the Bulgarian coast. The total length of the Black Sea section will exceed 900 kilometers, its maximum depth will be more than two kilometers and its design capacity – 63 billion cubic meters.

On December 30, 2011 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin authorized Gazprom to speed up the launch of the South Stream project and to start the gas pipeline construction in 2012.

On January 20, 2012 Gazprom Management Committee Chairman Alexey Miller approved the detailed action plan enabling to launch the South Stream offshore section construction in December 2012.

First gas supplies via the gas pipeline are scheduled for late 2015.

In order to ensure gas supplies into South Stream and to gasify central and southern regions of Russia, Gazprom is implementing a large-scale gas transmission system (GTS) project – Southern Corridor.

So far, the Southern Corridor project related documents have been prepared. In 2012 approvals were received from state experts.

At present, the gas pipeline routes are being optimized, engineering studies are being performed, gas linepipes and compressor stations are being designed.

The Southern Corridor GTS project is being implemented in eight Russian Federation constituents: the Nizhny Novgorod Region, the Republic of Mordovia, the Penza, Saratov, Volgograd, Voronezh, Rostov Regions and the Krasnodar Territory.