Pipeliners

May 28, 2009 (UPI) - NIS, Serbia, Administrators in the Serbian city of Nis called on government officials to pledge the route for the South Stream gas pipeline will not bypass their region. Officials from Russian gas monopoly Gazprom signed a series of bilateral agreements at a May 15 energy summit in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi on the proposed pipeline. Gazprom and its Serbian counterpart, Srbijagas, agreed on the terms of a joint venture for export design, construction and operational components of the South Stream leg through Serbian territory, with Gazprom holding the 51 percent majority. Dusan Bajatovic, the general director at Srbijagas, said the 280-mile leg of South Stream through Serbia will enter the country near the eastern city of Zajecar to Belgrade before branching off into northern and southern arteries. Opposition parties walked out of a city assembly meeting in protest of a decision to construct South Stream through Zajecar instead of Dimitrovgrad as originally planned, the Serbian broadcaster B92 reports. Administrators complained their region was neglected historically and local officials eventually adopted a declaration calling on Belgrade to reverse its decision regarding southern Serbia.