Pipeliners

02/09/2009 - MarketWatch - MOSCOW - The price for the OAO Gazprom-led South Stream gas pipeline carrying Russian and central Asian gas beneath the Black Sea to Europe may be EUR24 billion, the Vedomosti daily said Monday, citing a Gazprom presentation shown to investors. The part running under the Black Sea, which Gazprom plans to build jointly with Italy's Eni will cost more than EUR4 billion, while the 1,300-kilometer stretch to Austria and the 900-kilometer stretch running to Greece will cost a combined EUR15 billion and EUR20 billion, the paper said. South Stream is a rival project to the European Union-backed Nabucco pipeline, which will carry central Asian and possibly Middle Eastern gas to European markets. Both are scheduled to come carry about 30 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe by the middle of next decade. However, neither pipeline has begun construction yet.