At the pre-investment stage of the project a number of optional gas pipeline routes are being addressed including onshore sections across the Russian Federation and several European countries, as well as offshore gas pipelines via the Black and Adriatic Seas (in case the option of gas supply to the Southern Italy is selected).

Onshore Section in Russia

The Russian onshore section of the gas pipeline will run from the Pochinki compressor station to the Black Sea cost.

Recently, the “Petition (Declaration) of intent to invest in the South Stream gas pipeline construction. The Russian onshore section” has been finalized.

A feasibility study is underway to select the pipeline route and the process flowchart for gas transmission in Russia to the head compressor station at the offshore section.

Offshore Section

The pipeline offshore section with the length of around 900 km and maximum depth exceeding 2,000 m will connect the Russian and the Bulgarian costs under the Black Sea.

Gazprom started performing the Feasibility Study (FS) for the design of the South Stream offshore section. The section route is being optimized in cooperation with Morskoy Branch Office of Rosgeolfond.

Italian Eni S.p.A. acts as Gazprom’s partner in the construction of the Project offshore section.

Gas Pipeline in South and Central Europe

Several possible routes of the onshore section across the EU members are being currently considered.

To implement the onshore section of the Project outside Russia intergovernmental agreements have been signed with a number of South and Central European countries, which may be crossed by the gas pipeline route. These involve Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Greece. The negotiations are underway aimed at entering into the relevant agreements with Slovenia and Austria.

The intergovernmental agreements stipulate establishing joint ventures with the companies authorized by the Governments of the respective countries to take part in the project as well as executing individual feasibility studies (FS) for the gas pipeline construction in each of the signatory country. Afterwards, a consolidated feasibility study will be developed in order to adopt the investment decision on the project.