Macedonia Closer to Joining South Stream

Business » ENERGY | October 1, 2010, Friday // 21:12
Bulgaria: Macedonia Closer to Joining South Stream Up to now, Bulgaria has been a key country in the realization of the South Stream pipeline that must deliver Russian gas to Europe. Photo by wordpress.com

Macedonia appears to be very close to being included in the South Stream gas transit pipeline after its government held talks with Gazprom officials on Friday.

"It is quite likely that Macedonia will be involved in gas pipeline "South Stream", with a number of options reviewed how to do this, whether as its arm or as transit line. We need to complete the technical analyses on the pipeline profitability, followed by the signing of an inter-governmental agreement with Russia on its realization," Macedonian Deputy PM and Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski said, as cited by the Macedonian agency MINA, after Friday's meeting with representatives of Russian energy giant Gazprom in Skopje.

Stavreski has clearly defined Friday's talks as a step forward in the realization of the gas pipeline in Macedonia and it was almost certain that the country would be involved in the project.

"Gazprom's arrival in Macedonia will make the country more attractive to investors due to the stability in supply with environment-friendly and cheap energy, but will at the same time result in the development of Macedonia's economy," he declared .

Macedonia government has already established "Makedonija Gas", a special company to work together with "Gazprom" on South Stream. Depending on the gas needs of Kosovo and Albania, a South Stream arm towards Macedonia or a transit route would be constructed.

Gazprom head of project management Leonid Chugunov is quoted as saying that a period of at least one year was required for technical preparations in order to decide which of the two options to use.

In June 2010, a delegation to Moscow led by Macedonia's President George Ivanov sounded out the possibilities for joining the project.

The Russian government has signed intergovernmental agreements with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria to implement the land phase of the project, which aims to ship up to 63 billion cubic meters of Russian gas per year under the Black Sea to central and southern Europe.

In June, Macedonian President Ivanov met his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, and other high-ranking Russian officials, including the head of Russian gas company Gazprom Alexei Miller.

The South Stream pipeline, a project of Gazprom, Italy's Eni, and France's EDF, is projected to deliver gas from Russia through the Black Sea and then on to Southern Italy and Austria in two branches. Up to now, plans include the pipeline branching up in Bulgarian territory northwards to Serbia, Hungary and ultimately Austria, and southwards through Greece and ultimately southern Italy.

As Romania has already joined the project, inclusion of Macedonia could help Russia completely circumvent Bulgaria in the execution of the project if relations with the government in Sofia become strained.

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Tags: macedonia, South stream, FYROM, Russia, Gazprom, gas transit pipeline, pipeline, Zoran Stavreski

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