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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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| Information | | |
Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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10Jul14
Ukraine's FM considers South Stream "political project"
Ukraine's top diplomat said the construction of Russia's-led South Stream gas pipeline will change nothing for Europe. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin considers South Stream "a political project".
"If the South Stream project is implemented, nothing changes for Europe," he said. At the same time, Klimkin said, "Certain countries that will receive gas by the South Stream pipeline speak against the project. Its representatives have recently visited Kiev."
"There are countries that are ready to invest in modernizing the Ukrainian gas transportation system," he said. "The future of the gas market is based on diversification. Slate gas supplies will start soon. We're working on reverse gas flows," Klimkin added.
"Ukraine's priorities are to ensure reliable gas supplies on the basis of the European gas market. Ukraine is ready to transit gas through its territory. The reform of Naftogaz of Ukraine will facilitate this," he said.
"The current gas situation is the test for Europe from the point of view what role the European Union will play in the world," Klimkin said.
The South Stream Project
Gazprom's $45 billion South Stream project, slated to open in 2018 and deliver 64 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe, is a strategy for Russia to bypass politically unstable Ukraine as a transit country, and helps ensure the reliability of gas supplies to Europe.
The project stipulates for the offshore gas pipeline section to run under the Black Sea from the Russkaya compressor station on the Russian coast to the Bulgarian coast. The total length of the offshore section will be around 900 kilometers, the maximum depth - over two kilometers and the design capacity -- 63 billion cubic meters. There are two optional routes for the onshore gas pipeline section: either north-westwards or south-westwards from Bulgaria.
The 900-kilometer-long undersea section of the pipeline will run from the gas compressor facility at Beregovaya, on Russia's Black Sea coast, near Arkhipo-Osipovka, towards the city of Burgas, in Bulgaria. The sea's maximum depth on this route is 2,000 meters.
South Stream is a strategic project for Europe's energy security and should be implemented by the end of 2015. Work is currently underway to draft a feasibility study for the marine section across the Black Sea and the surface section running through transit countries.
The overall capacity of the marine section of the pipeline will be 63 billion cubic meters per year. It is worth about €8.6 billion.
[Source: Itar Tass, Kiev, 10Jul14]
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