Serbia to build first 30km of South Stream by end of year

Serbia to build first 30km of South Stream by end of year

BELGRADE -- By the end of 2014 the first 30 kilometers of the South Stream gas pipeline will be built in Serbia, Dušan Bajatović has announced.

The head of the country's public natural gas enterprise, Srbijagas, also said the pipeline route would be changed in the northern province of Vojvodina.

Asked "where Serbia stands in the political chaos due to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, which is a much bigger culprit for the halt of the construction in Bulgaria" - Bajatović told the daily Politika that in Serbia, everything is going according to plan when it comes to the pipeline.

"There will be a small modification of the route in Vojvodina, as the pipeline will instead of to Italy, go to Baumgarten in Austria, the largest gas storage facility in Europe. Soon we will finish (land) expropriation for the third section of the pipeline route and are awaiting construction permits to begin construction works," Bajatović explained.

He pointed out that there was no reason for South Stream, "as an energy facility," not to be built in Serbia and in other countries through which it will pass.

"I am certain that is how it will be. Everything related to the Third Energy Package are issues and problems that absolutely can be resolved. Given that this is an energy project of geo-strategic importance, particularly for the energy stability and security of the EU - which has no alternative in the medium, and probably even in the longer term, regardless of the Ukrainian crisis, or perhaps because of it - South Stream will be implemented within deadlines," Bajatović is convinced.

This official noted that Serbia is undertaking minimal risks...