Diving in: Gazprom has said its deal to build an export pipeline with Eni under the Black Sea is open to other partners
South Stream 'open to other partners'
Gazprom deputy chief executive Alexander Medvedev said today the company's deal with Italian energy group Eni to build a gas export link across the Black Sea remained open to partners from other countries, Russian media reported.
"We have agreed with Eni that joining the project is open," Medvedev said, adding that the participation of a Bulgarian partner was desirable, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency said.
Gazprom and Eni agreed to over the weekend to build a 900-kilometre export pipe across the Black Sea from Russia to Bulgaria, providing another link between Gazprom's gas resources and its European markets.
Medvedev said yesterday that Gazprom and Eni would hold equal stakes in the pipe's subsea section, while other partners would be able to join in building and operating the onshore sections of the pipe.
Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov said yesterday during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at an energy summit in Zagreb, Croatia, that Bulgaria was ready to join the project, RIA Novosti said.
Meanwhile, an official in Ankara said today the Gazprom-Eni plan threatened the Nabucco scheme that would link Caspian fields to Europe via Turkey.
The decision to build the link under the Black Sea meant Gazprom might not join $6.19 billion Nabucco project, led by Austria, the unnamed official said.
"The natural gas and petroleum projects suggested by Russia since the start of the year hurt the projects in which Turkey is involved, even though (Turkey) does not want to accept this," the Turkish Energy Ministry official told Reuters today.
"Other parties likely to be less happy about this announcement are European regulators concerned about potential Russian dominance in gas supplies to Europe and the co-venturers in the competing Nabucco pipeline intended to bring gas from the Caspian region across Turkey..." a Citigroup analyst wrote in a research note.
But the European Commission said it did not see the project as a competitor to Nabucco, saying any new infrastructure was helpful to secure energy supplies for the 27-nation bloc.
"We see no opposition between the two projects. Any infrastructure that can match this demand is seen as a positive development by the Commission," a spokesman for the European Union executive said.
Several European countries and Turkey launched Nabucco in an attempt to reduce reliance on Russian natural gas. Gazprom was later urged to join in recognition that it might be difficult for the project to succeed without Moscow's gas.
Nabucco would pump gas from Iran, Iraq, the Caspian and possibly Russia via Bulgaria, Romanian and Hungary to Austria.