17 Nov 2009 19:37

Gazprom, Srbijagas set up South Stream project company

MOSCOW. Nov 17 (Interfax) - Gazprom and Srbijagas officially founded the South Stream Serbia AG, the joint company for implementation of the South Stream gas pipeline project in Serbia.

The document signing and submission to the registration bodies was carried out in Berne, Switzerland on Tuesday.

South Stream Serbia AG will be in charge of preparing the feasibility study for the segment of the pipeline in Serbia and, if there is a positive investment decision, of design, financing, construction and operation of the pipeline in Serbia. Gazprom owns a 51% stake in the joint project company and Srbijagas has 49%.

Registration will be completed in the near future.

South Stream will link Russia directly to Bulgaria across the Black Sea, bypassing Ukraine, and continue on to the south of Italy and Austria. The pipeline system will have capacity to ship 63 billion cubic meters of gas a year. Gazprom's partner for laying the undersea section of the pipeline is Italian Eni. Talks are underway with French EDF on a stake in the project. The national oil and gas companies in the transit countries are Gazprom's partners for construction of the onshore segments of the pipeline.

RTS$#&: GAZP