South Stream to be implemented by all means -- Primakov

Replying to questions after his lecture "Russian in the Modern World" in Sofia on Monday, Primakov said, "If Bulgaria rejects the project for some reason, we have alternative options. We will not give up this project, and it will be implemented by all means."

Russia attaches great significance to the construction of South Stream because it is vital for diversification of gas supply routes to Europe. "When there is only one route that runs through certain countries, we saw that this can lead to conflicts. Diversification will make gas supplies to European consumers more reliable and safer. Russia wants gas to reach the end user unhindered," he said.

South Stream, which will be jointly built by Gazprom and ENI, will eventually take 30 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas a year to southern Europe, with Greece becoming a transit state on the southern arm of the pipeline pumping gas to Italy.

Analysts have said that the project, which aims to link Gazprom's Siberian gas fields with Europe and is seen as a competitor to the EU-backed Nabucco pipeline, will cost around 10 billion euro, or 15.82 billion U.S. dollars.

The projected South Steam gas transit pipeline starts at the Beregovaya compressor station at the Russian Black Sea coast. It would run through the Black Sea to the Bulgarian port of Varna, where it splits - the southwestern pipe would go to southern Italy via Greece, whereas the northwestern route would go through Serbia to northern Italy, possibly including Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, and Austria.

South Stream is scheduled to become operational in 2013. The 900-kilometer-long undersea section of the pipeline will run from the gas compressor facility at Beregovaya, on Russia's Black Sea coast, near Arkhipo-Osipovka, towards the city of Burgas, in Bulgaria. The sea's maximum depth on this route is 2,000 metres.

On the ground the pipeline will split. One (southwestern) branch will be laid across Bulgaria and Greece and the Adriatic Sea towards Brindisi, in Italy, and the other (northwestern one) may follow either of the two routes still being considered - Bulgaria-Serbia-Hungary-Austria, or Bulgaria-Serbia-Croatia, Slovenia-Austria; Kazinform cites ITAR-TASS.

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