Pipeliners

NOVY URENGOI, September 30 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom and Italy's Eni have no plans to involve a third partner in their project to build a pipeline across the Black Sea to pump natural gas to Europe, the Eni CEO said Tuesday. Gazprom and Eni are implementing the South Stream project as equal partners. "For everything concerning South Stream AG [the project operator], we remain 50-50," Paolo Scaroni said. The South Stream pipeline is expected to annually pump 30 billion cubic meters of Central Asian and Russian gas to the Balkans and on to other European countries, with the first deliveries scheduled to start in 2013. Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Italy and Greece are also involved in the project. Scaroni said local partners could be involved in the project in the countries serving as the transit route for the pipeline but they would not participate in the equity of the project's operator. Scaroni said the project's total price was around $20 billion, with the cost of the sea section estimated at $10 billion. The cost of the overland section will be an additional $10 billion or more, Scaroni said.