South Stream construction starts

Russia's Gazprom says that the construction of the underwater section of its South Stream pipeline, which will carry natural gas beneath the Black Sea and into the European Union, will begin this week.

Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller announced last month that the final investment decision for the project had been reached. Miller is scheduled to attend a groundbreaking ceremony near the town of Anapa on Russia's Black Sea coast on December 7th.

Gazprom says South Stream will pass through Turkish waters to Bulgaria, then continue on through Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Austria to tie in with the distribution network of the multinational Eni in northern Italy.

South Stream will have 4 pipelines with the capacity of 15.57 billion cubic meters each. The first pipe will be operational in 2015, while the full capacity 63 billion cubic meters should be reached in 2019. The project value is estimated at EUR 16 billion.