MOSCOW, April 18 (RIA Novosti) – Russia is continuing work on the South Stream natural gas pipeline project, including consultations with Europe, Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Novak said Friday at a RIA Novosti press conference.
“We are continuing our work with the European Commission, and the project has not been suspended,” Novak said.
The European Parliament adopted a resolution Thursday calling on EU member states to slap sanctions on Russian energy companies that work in European markets. The resolution also urged EU leaders to drop out of the South Stream project and rethink or suspend agreements with Russia.
On Thursday, Bulgarian Minister of Energy Dragomir Stoynev said the EU should analyze the negative impacts a freeze of South Stream would impose on the union. Being almost totally dependent on Russian gas, Bulgaria stands to profit from the project, which aims to build a new pipeline crossing the Black Sea and bypassing Ukraine.
“South Stream is a long-term infrastructure project of strategic importance. Now they want to halt it. How are we supposed to develop our country? This crisis shows that we cannot rely on the supply of natural gas to Bulgaria," Stoynev said.
The South Stream gas pipeline is proposed cross the Black Sea to ship Russian gas to South and Central Europe. For the onshore sections, Russia has signed intergovernmental agreements with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, Slovenia and Croatia.
The construction of South Stream began in 2012 near the Russian city of Anapa, with the first gas to pass through the pipeline in the first quarter of 2016, before becoming fully operational in 2018.
