Russia has pledged that the South Stream gas pipeline through Serbia will be completed by 2015, Serbian officials said on Wednesday.
The pipeline, to be developed by Russia's energy giant Gazprom and Italy's ENI, is to bring natural gas from Russia across the Black Sea to southern Europe.
The pledge was made to dispel Serbia's worry that its state-owned oil enterprise, NIS, would be sold off without pipeline guarantees.
Under a package energy deal between the two countries, Gazprom will build a part of its South Stream natural gas pipeline through Serbia while purchasing a 51 percent controlling stake in NIS.
Serbian Energy Minister Petar Skundric said that the agreement signed between Russia and Serbia on Jan. 25 guaranteed that the Russians would respect all the time frames related to the energy deal.
"It's been agreed that a protocol pertaining to all of Gazprom's obligations towards the South Stream gas pipeline and Banatski Dvor storage facility will be signed before any contract on the sale of NIS is concluded," Skundric added.
Russia offered 400 million euros for the acquisition of NIS, plus another 500 million euros for NIS modernization. But analysts put the fair value of NIS at 2.2 billion euros, about 5 times more than the offered price.
Gazprom has said earlier that the current financial crisis could force it to delay the South Stream pipeline project with two more years till 2015.
Source:Xinhua
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