Pipeliners

MOSCOW, June 25 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom's [RTS: GAZP] deputy CEO said Monday the issue of other countries joining the project to build a natural gas pipeline across the Black Sea remains open. The Russian energy giant and the Italian gas company Eni SpA signed June 23 a memorandum on the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline, which will stretch for 900 kilometers (560 miles) along the seabed of the Black Sea from Russia to Bulgaria, reaching a maximum depth of over 2 kilometers (1.2 miles). "We have agreed with Eni that joining the project is open," Alexander Medvedev said, adding that the possible participation of a Bulgarian company was desirable, but that the form and extent of that participation remained subjects for discussion. On Sunday, Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Balkan energy summit in Zagreb that Bulgaria "is ready to join the South Stream project." Earlier Sunday, Medvedev said that third parties would be able to participate in the construction of land-based stretches of the pipeline, while Gazprom and Eni would exclusively share equal stakes in the pipeline's underwater section. Medvedev also said that the new project should not be viewed as an alternative to other international projects Gazprom is working on, but rather as a supplement to them, adding that all the necessary conditions for the project, such as natural gas reserves, existing contracts with Italy and high demand for gas in Europe, already existed. He said the South Stream, with an estimated annual capacity of about 30 billion cubic meters of gas, along with the Nord Stream, Blue Stream and Blue Stream-2, is a united system of Gazprom exports.