Russia rejected Viktor Yanukovych’s proposals for South Stream
The construction of the South Stream gas pipeline through Ukrainian territory is inexpedient. On September 16, a statement to journalists in Sochi was made by Deputy Chairman of the Board of Gazprom Valery Golubev. Thus, the Russian company responded to the initiative of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Thus, the President of Ukraine made a proposal instead of building the South Stream gas pipeline under the Black Sea to lay a new gas transmission system (GTS) along the southern part of Ukrainian territory.
Viktor Yanukovych made this proposal at the Yalta International Forum on Global Issues. According to him, Kiev offers “a flexible approach without building the South Stream”. The gas pipeline should be laid in the south of Ukraine, on land, - said the Ukrainian president. Yanukovych noted that the offshore gas pipeline project, according to Ukrainian experts, is estimated at 25 billion euros, and Kiev offers "five times cheaper."
But Valery Golubev, deputy chairman of the board of Gazprom, doubts that the Ukrainian president’s proposals are beneficial for Russia. Ukraine “has been offering for a long time,” Golubev said, giving an interview about Ukrainian proposals. The gas pipeline could have been laid through the Crimean peninsula, “go to Evpatoria and further to the Black Sea, but what’s the point when you can just directly,” he noted.
It should be noted that 16 September, the agreement of shareholders on the "South Stream" was signed. To implement the gas pipeline construction project, it was signed by the following shareholders of South Stream Transport: Gazprom (Russia), Eni (Italy), EdF (France) and Wintershall (Germany). The new agreement on the sharing of South Stream will give the Italian company 20% shares in the underwater part of the pipeline, the French and German companies will receive 15% shares, with the result that the Western European energy giants will jointly own half of the project shares. For the Russian company "Gazprom" will remain the other half of the shares, according to a press release of the association. The document signing ceremony was held at the ninth international investment forum in Sochi. For participation in this project, Bulgaria will receive 2,5 billion euros per year for gas transit to other European countries. The agreement on the participation of Bulgaria in the South Stream project was signed in the presence of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The South Stream gas pipeline should be laid from the Russian Federation to Bulgaria along the bottom of the Black Sea. From Bulgaria, the gas transportation system will be divided into two branches: the first will go through Serbia and Greece to Austria, the second through Greece to southern Italy (part of the GTS will be laid by sea). The estimated cost of the gas pipeline (with a throughput of 63 billion cubic meters of gas) is estimated by OAO Gazprom to 15,5 billion euros, of which 10 billion euros must go to the sea section of the GTS, and 5,5 billion to the land 2010, the project cost was estimated at 8,6 billion euros).
The main task of South Stream, as well as of Nord Stream, is to change the transit routes of natural gas supply to European consumer countries, and thereby reduce the dependence of the Russian Federation on the transit countries. Meanwhile, Kiev has repeatedly opposed new gas projects in Russia bypassing the Ukrainian gas transportation system, although it lobbies the so-called White Stream (this is one of the projects of the Southern Energy Corridor), which provides for the supply of Azerbaijani and Turkmen gas through Azerbaijan and Georgia . On it I plan to lay a gas pipeline along the bottom of the Black Sea from Batumi to Ukraine.
On September 14, Ukrainian Prime Minister’s spokesman Vitaly Lukyanenko said that Kiev wanted clarity from the Russian Federation and the European Union regarding the use of Ukraine’s gas transmission system. If Russia is laying bypass pipelines around the Ukrainian state, Kiev wants to get a clear answer: whether to count on it that the Russian Gazprom will use the Ukrainian GTS, said the spokesman for the head of the Ukrainian government, Mykola Azarov. If the Russian government wants to abandon the use of Ukraine as a transit country for natural gas to European countries, then the content of the gas transmission system becomes unprofitable for Kiev, and it will have to be disassembled in order not to spend money on its maintenance, Lukyanenko said.
Information