The South Stream project aims to ensure Europe's energy security as well as make gas suppliers and buyers less dependent on transit countries.
The pipeline will run across Russia from the Pochinki compressor station to the Beregovaya compressor station in Novorossiisk, under the Black Sea, and to the Bulgarian port of Varna. The overland section beginning in Bulgaria may follow two optional courses:
1. To the northwest: Bulgaria - Serbia - Hungary - Austria - northern Italy (1st alternative); Bulgaria - Serbia - Slovenia - northern Italy (2nd alternative).
2. To the southwest: Bulgaria - Greece - Adriatic Sea - southern Italy. Should this arrangement be adopted, an additional undersea pipeline will be built in the Adriatic.
The Black Sea section of South Stream will have a length of 900 km, and a maximum depth of 2,000 m. The pipeline will handle gas from Russia, Central Asia, and Kazakhstan. Its design capacity is 31 bcm. Construction is scheduled to start late in 2010 or early in 2011. The year of completion is 2013.
To implement the project, South Stream AG was registered in Switzerland on January 18, 2008. Gazprom and ENI were parity (50%) founders.
To guarantee cooperation in South Stream construction, Russia has signed bilateral intergovernmental agreements with Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece and Serbia (all these agreements have been ratified already). A draft agreement with Slovenia is in the final stages, and one with Austria is under preparation. These agreements specify the establishment of joint design companies to make feasibility studies and - should technical feasibility and commercial value be proven - continue with design, construction and operation of South Stream on the territories of member-states.
Currently, Russia is discussing with Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Turkey the obtaining of clearances or permits for the passage of South Stream's Black Sea section through the exclusive economic zones of these states. On Gazprom's instructions, Piter Gaz will now be concerned with these matters and also with environmental and probe studies.
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic have stepped forward to join the project.