ŠKUNDRIĆ: "Srbijagas" and "Gazprom" to sign agreement on gas pipeline soon

The Minister of Energy of Serbia, Petar Škundrić, said today (April 29, 2009) that the agreement between "Srbijagas" and Russian "Gazprom" on gas pipeline Južni Tok could be signed at the forthcoming meeting of all countries participants in that projects.

- All the confusions between Bulgaria and Russia were cleared out during the stay of Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergej Stanišev in Moscow, and there are no more misapprehensions or misunderstandings – the Minister said at the press conference in the Government of Serbia.

The prime ministers of Russia and Bulgaria, Vladimir Putin and Sergej Stanišev, announced after the yesterday’s meeting in Moscow that Russia and Bulgaria would sign the agreement on construction of gas pipeline Južni Tok within the next two weeks.

Škundrić pointed out that that practically led to creation of the terms for the signing of the agreements between the companies from the countries participants and Russian company "Gazprom".

Škundrić said that the conclusion from the last week’s energy summit in Sofia was that the meeting should be held for all the countries that would participate in realization of gas pipeline Južni tok.

- The essence of that meeting would be the agreement on intensification of all the necessary activities for realization of the strategic project for construction of gas pipeline Južni Tok, which involves Serbia as well – Serbian Minister of Energy pointed out.

According to the announcements from Russia, the agreements on Južni Tok were supposed to be signed at the summit in Sofia, but that did not happen because of the dispute between Russia and Bulgaria.

Gas pipeline Južni Tok should transport Russian gas beneath the surface of the Black Sea through pipeline 900 kilometers long, across the continental part of Bulgaria, to other European countries. The annual capacity of the gas pipeline should amount to about 31 billion cubic meters of gas.