History
The South Stream pipeline project was announced on 23 June 2007, when the CEO Paolo Scaroni of the Italian energy company Eni and the Vice-Chairman Alexander Medvedev of the Russian Gazprom signed a memorandum of understanding in Rome for the construction of the pipeline.[8] On 22 November 2007, Gazprom and Eni signed in Moscow an agreement on establishing a joint project company for the commissioning of the marketing and technical feasibility studies of the project.[9]
The preliminary agreement between Russia and Bulgaria on Bulgaria's participation in the project was signed on 18 January 2008. It was agreed to set up an equally owned company to build and operate the Bulgarian section of the pipeline.[10] The agreement was ratified by Bulgarian Parliament on 25 July 2008.[11] The first agreement between Russia and Serbia was signed even before the announcement of the South Stream project. On 20 December 2006, Gazprom and the Serbian state-owned gas company Srbijagas agreed to conduct a study on building a gas pipeline running from Bulgaria to Serbia.[12] On 25 January 2008, Russia and Serbia signed an agreement to route a northern line of South Stream through Serbia and to create a joint company to build the Serbian section of the pipeline and a gas storage facility near Banatski Dvor.[13][14] On the same day, Russia and Hungary agreed to set up an equally owned joint company to build and operate the Hungarian section.[15] On 29 April 2008, Russia and Greece signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in construction and operation of the Greek section.[16]
On 15 May 2009, in Sochi, in presence of the Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin and the Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi, the gas companies of Russia, Italy, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece signed an agreement on construction of South Stream.[17][18] On 6 August 2009, Russian Prime Minister Putin and the Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in presence the Italian premiere Berlusconi, signed a protocol routing the pipeline through the Turkish territorial waters.[19] On 14 November 2009, followed the talks between Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor and Russia's Putin, the agreement to run a part of the pipeline through Slovenia to Northern Italy was signed by Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko and Slovenian Economy Minister Matej Lahovnik in Moscow.[20][21] As per the earlier 2008 agreement between the two countries, on 17 November 2009, Russian Gazprom and Serbian Srbijagas created South Stream Serbia AG in Bern, Switzerland. The joint company was responsible for designing, financing, construction and operation of the Serbia section.
On 2 March 2010, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko and Croatian Economy, Labor and Entrepreneurship Minister Djuro Popijac in the presence of the Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister of Croatia Jadranka Kosor signed an agreement on linking Croatia with South Stream.[23][24] On 19 June 2010, Gazprom, Eni, and Électricité de France published a joint press release confirming that EDF will join the project.[25] On 21 March 2011, Slovenia and Russia signed an agreement regarding the establishment of a joint venture South Stream Slovenia.[26]
The joint venture South Stream AG, equally owned by Gazprom and Eni, was registered on 18 January 2008 in Switzerland.[27] However, on 16 September 2011, a shareholders' agreement was signed between Gazprom, Eni, Électricité de France and Wintershall to establish the new project company South Stream Transport AG for the Black Sea section of the pipeline.[28] The company was incorporated on 3 October 2011 in Zug, Switzerland.
On 28 December 2011 Turkey issued its final agreement for allowing the pipeline to pass through its territorial waters.[29][30] The final investment decision for the Serbian section was signed on 29 October 2012, for the Hungarian section on 2 November 2012, for the Slovenian section on 13 November 2012, and for the Bulgarian section on 15 November 2012.[31][32][33] On 15 November 2012, shareholders of South Stream Transport AG signed the final investment decision on the offshore section.[34] The ground-breaking ceremony marking start of construction of the Russian onshore facilities was held on 7 December 2012 at the Russkaya compressor station near Anapa.[34][35]
On 25 July 2013, the Vice Premier Republic of Macedonia Zoran Stavreski signed the agreement on linking section through Republic of Macedonia with South Stream.[36]
In March and April 2014, the contracts for laying the first and second lines of the offshore section were awarded to Saipem and Allseas.[37][38] Contracts for the third and fourth line were to be signed in December 2014 and January 2015.
On 17 April 2014, amid Russia's annexation of Crimea, the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution opposing the South Stream gas pipeline and recommending a search for alternative sources of gas supplies for the European Union.[39] On 29 April 2014 a memorandum on the implementation of the Austrian section was signed in Moscow. Commissioning of the Austrian section is scheduled by January 2018.[40] In June 2014, Bulgaria temporarily stopped construction due to the European Commission's infringement procedure against Bulgaria for non-compliance with European rules on energy competition public procurements.[41]
In April 2014, Russia filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization against the European Union's energy market laws that were enacted in 2009, claiming that they violate international rules. These laws ban suppliers from owning transit facilities such as gas pipelines, and would force Gazprom to allow third-party gas producers to use the South Stream pipeline.[42]
On 1 December 2014, during a state visit to Turkey, president Putin announced that Russia was withdrawing from the project, blaming international sanctions and lack of construction permits in the territory of the European Union.[43] Russia has started to build a pipeline through Turkey known as Turkish Stream.[44] Renamed as TurkStream, the pipeline was later completed, sending gas supplies to Bulgaria on 1 January 2020.[7]
Along with additional supplied to Turkey, Russian gas, according to Putin, "will be retargeted to other regions of the world, which will be achieved, among other things, through the promotion and accelerated implementation of projects involving liquefied natural gas." In 2015, the supply of Russian gas to Turkey will be raised by 3 billion cubic meters via the already operating Blue Stream pipeline. Later a new undersea pipeline to Turkey, with an annual capacity around 60 billion cubic metres (bcm) will be built. That will allow Turkey to resell Russian gas to Europe.
In 2018, Bulgaria's president Rumen Radev proposed that the construction of the South Stream pipeline be resumed.[45]
