Pipeliners

01 December, 2008 - The Benton Crier - The $13 billion South Stream natural gas pipeline to be laid under the Black Sea would carry Russian natural gas to Bulgaria and Serbia before branching out to points in Western Europe. But Serbia‘s Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic told independent B-92 TV late Sunday that those guarantees are only "verbal" and that Russia‘s energy monopoly Gazprom has so far refused to sign a written contract to confirm it. He said Gazprom plans to conduct a feasibility study by mid-2010, and that only after that analysis would the Russian company decide whether to build the South Stream pipeline. Analysts have questioned whether Serbia should now be selling off one of its most valuable assets at an undercut price without the pipeline guarantees from Moscow. The South Stream would undercut an alternative project — the Nabucco pipeline planned to carry natural gas westward from the Caucasus. That project is backed by the United States and the European Union as a way to ease Europe‘s energy reliance on Russia.