The Russian-backed South Stream gas pipeline will be completed before the EU rival Nabucco project. Photo by wikimedia.org
The Russian-backed South Stream gas pipeline will be completed before the EU rival Nabucco project.
That was announced Monday by Russia's Energy Minister, Sergei Shmatko, Darik Radio reported.
"The South Stream has every chance of being realized before Nabucco. We will start implementing this project very soon", Shmatko said.
The South Stream pipeline project is being led by Russian energy giant Gazprom and
Italy's Eni, and will pass under the Black Sea delivering gas to Europe.
The project is widely seen as a rival to Nabucco, a pipeline backed by the EU that would take gas from the Caspian region through Turkey towards Austria, bypassing Russian territory.
The EU has promoted Nabucco as a way to reduce its dependence on Russian gas and to avoid another disruption like Januarys gas crisis, when a price dispute between Russia and Ukraine cut supplies to over a dozen European countries.