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"Early to speculate about South Stream route changes"

BELGRADE -- It is early to speculate about any potential new routes for the South Stream gas pipeline, Tanjug has learned from the Russian energy giant Gazprom.

Preparations for the construction of the Serbian stretch of the pipeline are going according to plan, the company said.

BELGRADE - Preparations for the construction of the Serbian stretch of the South Stream gas pipeline are going according to plan and it is early to speculate on any potential new routes, Tanjug has learned at Gazprom.

Russian energy firm Gazprom has prepared an alternative plan for the prospective South Stream natural gas pipeline’s route in the event that the project does not pass through Bulgaria, as originally intended, according to a Russian newspaper report.

Gazprom could consider another route for South Stream if the EU continued to obstruct the construction of the Moscow-backed gas pipeline, a Russian journalist has suggested.

The announcement that Bulgaria has halted work on the South Stream project “could be a bit more serious” than the previous one, a gas analyst has commented.

The South Stream Bulgaria project company has increased its capital in defiance of orders to the contrary issued by caretaker energy minister Vasil Shtonov.

Vasil Shtonov, caretaker Energy Minister, has informed that the State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (DKEVR) may be moved from the government to Parliament.

Shtonov made clear at a Friday press conference that the proposal was still being discussed and it could only be implemented by an ordinary government.

BELGRADE - Srbijagas director Dusan Bajatovic says that the first 30 kilometers of the South Stream pipeline section through Serbia will be laid by the end of 2014, and the route will change in Vojvodina, as it will not go to Italy but to Baumgarten in Austria.

Ekaterina Zaharieva, caretaker Deputy Prime Minister, has vowed to make as much information as possible on the South Stream gas pipeline project publicly available.

In a Thursday interview for private TV station bTV, Zaharieva argued that at least the basic terms of contracts of this type had to be made public.

Nikolić and Tsentrgaz director discuss South Stream

BELGRADE -- President Tomislav Nikolić conferred in Belgrade on with Stanislav Anikeev, director of Tsentrgaz, the company that will build South Stream in Serbia.

The talks covered the importance of the natural gas pipeline project for the country, reported Tanjug.