South Stream construction in Serbia starts July - Loan from Gazprom arrives soon

Construction of South Stream gas pipeline in Serbia may commence this July, until when the contractor selection process will be completed. This was announced Thursday by Alexander Siromyatin, the director of the Gazprom Department for International Projects.

He stated that the contractor should be appointed soon, adding that a contract with the selected contractor should be signed in three weeks at the earliest.

- We expect the work on the gas pipeline through Serbia to kick off as early as July - Siromyatin told the press during a break in the conference "The Role of Serbia in the Balkans Energy Market" which was held Thursday in the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.

Also, Siromyatin announced that an agreement on a Gazprom loan for South Stream construction in Serbia should be signed by mid-June.

Siromyatin pointed out that after the loan agreement was signed, the money would be immediately transferred to the account of Srbijagas to invest it in the Juzni tok Srbija (South Stream Serbia) company, adding that the works can start after that.

Siromyatin stressed that the implementation of the South Stream gas pipeline project was going as planned.