Gazprom and Bulgaria are set to sign an...
to Bulgaria on Tuesday and his meeting with Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov and Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, the parties discussed the pre-investment stage of the project."The preparation of a feasibility study for the Bulgarian part of the gas pipeline and the creation of a joint project company between Gazprom and the Bulgarian Energy Holding were named as top priority measures," the statement said.
The South Stream project, designed to annually pump 31 billion cubic meters of Central Asian and Russian gas to the Balkans and on to other European countries, involves Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Italy and Greece.
The pipeline"s capacity could be eventually increased to 63 billion cubic meters annually.
The gas pipeline is expected to start operating in late 2015. The project is part of Russia"s efforts to cut dependence on transit nations. It is a rival project to the EU-backed Nabucco, which would bypass Russia.