Pipeliners

29 April 2009 - The Moscow Times by Anatoly Medetsky – Russia and Bulgaria bridged their differences over the planned South Stream pipeline after two days of intensive high-level diplomacy, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Bulgarian counterpart Sergei Stanishev said Tuesday. Putin also said Russia saw no point in continuing to be a signatory to the European Energy Charter after it failed to regulate Moscow's dispute with Ukraine over transit to Europe in January. In addition, Moscow will also consider lending Sofia several billion euros to fund construction of a 4 billion euro ($5.2 billion) nuclear power plant in Bulgaria by a Russian company, Putin said. South Stream appeared to have consumed most of the diplomatic efforts during Stanishev's visit, which saw two days of talks with Putin over the issue and a delay in meeting President Dmitry Medvedev. As a result of the deal, Russia dropped its intention to use Bulgaria's existing pipelines to transit gas to Europe as part of South Stream, instead agreeing to consider other options, Putin and Stanishev said without naming them. Putin downplayed bilateral contentions in the matter. "How did we overcome the tensions?" he said, repeating a question from a Bulgarian reporter at a news conference, before adding, "With our inherent laid-back brilliance. It was easy. ... We didn't even notice them. There were no tensions." Stanishev was more reserved in his assessments. "It may not be with brilliance, but we are coping successfully," he said at the same news conference. Under a contract running to 2030, Bulgaria now handles 17 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia every year, transporting most of it on to Greece, Turkey and Macedonia and keeping 3.5 bcm for domestic needs. South Stream, to be laid on the bottom of the Black Sea and to surface in Bulgaria, is planned to have an annual capacity of 31 bcm. Gazprom and partner Eni of Italy want to complete constructing the undersea stretch in 2013. Bulgaria insisted that Gazprom must build a new pipeline to carry South Stream's gas, saying it needed the existing network to continue handling the current transit and remain available for any alternative supplies from projects such as Nabucco. Putin said further talks were needed on transiting gas in excess of the current amount. He suggested a solution during a Monday meeting with Stanishev, and they came to a preliminary agreement, Putin said. He did not elaborate on the nature of the deal. Stanishev said only that the agreement comprised all the points that Bulgaria had pressed for. Gazprom and the Bulgarian Energy Holding company will sign the deal by mid-May, the prime ministers said. Putin used the news conference to suggest again that Russia might withdraw from the European Energy Charter, apparently to give more weight to a recent proposal by Medvedev that the international community adopt a broader alternative energy security pact. "Today, it's possible to say definitely and expressly that we don't see a point in maintaining our signature under that document," Putin said.