Macedonia will hold talks on October 1 with Russian gas giant Gazprom on joining the South Stream gas pipeline project.

This has been announced by Macedonia's Finance Ministry on Tuesday, after in June 2010 a delegation to Moscow led by Macedonia's President George Ivanov sounded out the possibilities for joining the project.

"We will do our best to persuade Gazprom that the project is profitable both for the company and for the Republic of Macedonia thanks to the creation of a South Stream transportation corridor leg in the country. It is of great importance for future stability and safety of gas supplies," the ministry quoted its head Zoran Stavreski as saying.

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 Friday, and later his delegation had discussions with other high-ranking Russian officials, including 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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