You're reading: Final investment decision on Russia’s South Stream offshore pipeline reached

MOSCOW - Directors at South Stream Transport B.V., the project company for the marine section of the South Stream gas pipeline system, approved a final investment decision (FID) for the offshore pipeline at a meeting in Milan on Wednesday, Russia's Gazprom said.

The offshore section will cost an estimated EUR10 billion.

A FID for the Bulgarian section of South Stream is expected to be reached today.

The South Stream Offshore Pipeline will pass through the Black Sea
from Anapa, Russia to Varna, Bulgaria, via the Turkish Exclusive
Economic Zone (EEZ). It will measure approximately 900 kilometers long,
230 kilometers of which will pass through Russia. The offshore pipeline
is slated to have a throughput capacity of 63 billion cubic meters (bcm)
of natural gas a year. Gas supplies should start in 2015.

South Stream Transport’s shareholders signed an agreement to
implement the project in the middle of last September. Gazprom has 50%
of the project, Eni has 20%, Germany’s Wintershall Holding has 15% and
EDF has 15%.