South Stream needs the approval of both Romania and Bulgaria

Vineri, 29 februarie 2008, 14:29 English | Regional Europe

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungariam PM Ferenc Gyurczany set up on Thursday the preliminary stage to create the South Stream pipeline aimed at linking Russia with Europe through the Black Sea corridor. Hungary will create a joint enterprise with Gazprom to build its pipeline segment. However, the project might face difficulties. The problem is that the marine segment passed by the pipeline hits Ukraine and Romania's economic areas.

Considering the tense relation between Russia and the two countries, Kyev might postpone implementing the project in order to pressure Moscow authorities for some advantages on the natural gas market, Russian daily Kommersant daily reads.

The Hungarian PM declared that he was confident that the new pipeline would provide all needed resources. Moreover, he emphasized that South Stream had every chance to be built.

Contrary to his opinion, experts argue that Gazprom repeats the same mistake made with the Nord Stream pipeline. First of all Gazprom signs agreements will importers and makes all public announcements and only afterwards it requires the approval of the transit countries, East European Gas Analysis director Mikhail Korcenkin says.

Thus, a great part of the South Stream project passes through Ukraine's continental plateau and another through the Romanian one. The quoted expert argues that transited countries cannot impede the pipeline's construction but all countries need to approve it in order to assess the environmental expertise.