Putin urges to speed up South Stream gas project

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urged to speed up the creation of the South Stream gas pipeline on Friday. “It would be desirable to start it already at the end of next year,” the prime minister offered at a meeting with Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller. For his part, Miller noted that “all blueprints and surveys on the maritime section are planned to complete before the end of 2012 and the construction is planned to launch at the beginning of 2013 and finalize it in December 2015.” First commercial gas supplies should be launched then, he underlined. “A total amount of funding for the maritime section of the pipeline makes ten billion euros according to the final feasibility studies, the pipeline will be 925 kilometres long with four lines and the design throughput capacity of the gas pipeline will be 63 billion cubic meters,” Miller said. “The land section of the pipeline will cost 6.5 billion euros and will be a little more than 2,000 kilometres,” he added. “Thus, the funding will total a little more than 15 billion euros,” the Gazprom CEO noted. The South Stream project will be funded by 30% from its own resources and by 70% from borrowings. Russia will account for about 7.5 billion euros of funding, because Gazprom possesses 50% of stock in the joint venture. Miller also noted that the construction of a branch to Macedonia is being debated. At the meeting with Miller the prime minister also thanked all those who worked on the project, recalling that this week a serious step was made to implement the project. Turkey granted a permit to build the maritime section of the pipeline in the exclusive economic zone of the country in the Black Sea.