Serbia forced to postpone South Stream project construction
The South Stream pipeline will span the length of Serbia (green dotted line).
Bulgaria’s decision to freeze all work surrounding the South Stream Gas Pipeline project at the European Commission’s request means that Serbia will have to postpone the start of the project too, the Serbian newswire B92 reported June 9.
“Bulgaria is a node, so until the talks between Bulgaria and the EU and Russia and the EU are over, we are on hold as well, or until Russia changes the route,” said Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihajlovic, as cited by the newswire. “In any case, the result of either scenario means a delay in the construction works in our country.”
Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Aleksandar Antic sided with Mihajlovic and stressed that the gas pipeline’s future depends mostly on reaching of an agreement between the European Commission, EU member states and Russia.
“South Stream is important to us as a development and energy project, but it is clear that Serbia is just one country on the pipeline’s route, but that, besides Russia, it is the only country on that route that is not a member of the EU,” remarked Antic, as cited by the newswire.
Meanwhile, Serbia’s natural gas public company, Srbijagas, which is in charge of the South Stream Gas Pipeline’s construction in Serbia, is in the process of negotiating a loan with Russian Gazprom. Srbijagas also plans to sign contracts with contractors in late June. The local media reported that Srbijagas’ representatives stated that the company’s activities would not be halted on the project, “unless the government decides otherwise,” as cited by the Serbian newswire.
