South Stream construction in Serbia to commence in late 2013

Srbijagas announced Thursday (28 February 2013) that it would join forces with Russia's Gazprom and put in maximum effort to have the construction of South Stream gas pipeline in Serbia kick off in Q4 2013.

As it was assessed at a meeting between Srbijagas CEO Dusan Bajatovic and Director of the Gazprom Project Management Department Leonid Chugunov, preparations for the implementation of the South Stream project in Serbia are progressing on schedule.

As Srbijagas said in its press release, the meeting in Novi Sad was also an opportunity to consider this year's financial needs of the Juzni Tok Srbija (South Stream Serbia) company, which is in charge of the project implementation.

On February 19th, the Serbian parliament passed a law to accelerate land expropriation and the permitting process for the construction of that international gas pipeline.

Construction of this gas pipeline, which should cost EUR 16 billion, commenced December 2012 in Russia, and the plan is to put the pipeline into operation in late 2015.

The section through Serbia is 400 kilometers long and its construction will cost EUR 1.7 billion.