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Medvedev Says Energy Projects Should Not Create New Dividing Lines

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  • Medvedev Says Energy Projects Should Not Create New Dividing Lines

    MEDVEDEV SAYS ENERGY PROJECTS SHOULD NOT CREATE NEW DIVIDING LINES

    ITAR-TASS
    Oct 24 2011
    Russia

    President Dmitry Medvedev agreed that energy projects like South
    Stream should not create new dividing lines and tensions.

    "I absolutely agree with Serzh Azatovich [Sargsyan] that economic
    projects should not create dividing lines but should on the contrary
    strengthen cooperation and interaction in the region. This is what they
    are for, including South Stream just as many other projects that can
    be implemented in the region," Medvedev said on Monday, October 24,
    commenting on Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's words that projects
    like South Stream should not create new dividing lines in the region.

    "Everything the Russian Federation does, it does it in order to
    facilitate the spirit of cooperation, alleviate concerns and increase
    the competitiveness of both the Russian Federation and other countries
    involved in these projects," he added.

    South Stream, which will be jointly built by Gazprom and ENI, will
    eventually take 30 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas a
    year to southern Europe, with Greece becoming a transit state on the
    southern arm of the pipeline pumping gas to Italy.

    Analysts have said that the project, which aims to link Gazprom's
    Siberian gas fields with Europe and is seen as a competitor to the
    EU-backed Nabucco pipeline, will cost around 10 billion euro, or
    15.82 billion U.S. dollars.

    The projected South Steam gas transit pipeline starts at the Beregovaya
    compressor station at the Russian Black Sea coast. It would run through
    the Black Sea to the Bulgarian port of Varna, where it splits - the
    southwestern pipe would go to southern Italy via Greece, whereas
    the northwestern route would go through Serbia to northern Italy,
    possibly including Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, and Austria.

    South Stream is scheduled to become operational in 2013. The
    900-kilometre-long undersea section of the pipeline will run from the
    gas compressor facility at Beregovaya, on Russia's Black Sea coast,
    near Arkhipo-Osipovka, towards the city of Burgas, in Bulgaria. The
    sea's maximum depth on this route is 2,000 metres.

    On the ground the pipeline will split. One (southwestern) branch
    will be laid across Bulgaria and Greece and the Adriatic Sea
    towards Brindisi, in Italy, and the other (northwestern one)
    may follow either of the two routes still being considered -
    Bulgaria-Serbia-Hungary-Austria, or Bulgaria-Serbia-Croatia,
    Slovenia-Austria.

    South Stream is a strategic project for Europe's energy security and
    should be implemented by the end of 2015. Work is currently underway
    to draft a feasibility study for the marine section across the Black
    Sea and the surface section running through the transit countries.

    The inter-governmental agreement signed in Vienna on April 25, 2010
    between Russia and Austria on cooperation under the South Stream
    project removes all legal obstacles to its implementation.

    The agreement was the last document that was necessary for the start
    of the project. Russia has signed similar documents with Serbia,
    Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, and Croatia.

    The overall capacity of the marine section of the pipeline will be 63
    billion cubic meters a year. Its cost is about 8.6 billion euros. The
    section is scheduled to be commissioned before December 31, 2015.

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