The Russian Ministry of Energy and state-run gas giant Gazprom will present the South Stream gas pipeline project at the EU headquarters in Brussels Wednesday.

With this presentation, Russia aims to win the status of a trans-European gas transmission network for South Stream, thereby allowing it to go beyond the competences of European and national regulatory bodies.

South Stream, a 900-km gas pipeline project for carrying Russian natural gas through the Black Sea to Bulgaria and further to Italy and Austria, is considered a rival to the EU-backed Nabucco gas pipeline.

According to Russian Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko, Russia will insist on granting Nabucco and South Stream equal privileges by treating both pipeline projects as projects of European importance.

In fact, the EU has already granted such an exclusive status to the Nabucco pipeline, which, however, has reached a standstill over the failure to secure sufficient gas supplies.

South Stream is planned to start near Novorosiysk on the Russian Black Sea coast, crossing Bulgaria's city of Varna on its way.

In Bulgaria, the pipe is supposed to split in two - one pipeline going to Greece and Southern Italy, and another one going to Austria and Northern Italy through Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia.

The offshore section of South Stream is planned to carry 63 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per year.

South Stream's branch running from Bulgaria through Serbia was negotiated between Russia and Serbia on January 25, 2008.

The future gas pipeline aims to partially replace the planned extension of Blue Stream from Turkey through Bulgaria and Serbia to Hungary and Austria.

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