Europe must say goodbye to the South Stream gas pipeline project, which was supposed to connect Russia and the EU directly, without passing through any other non-EU country. This was announced yesterday evening by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin: ” If Europe does not want to achieve it, it will not be achieved. Russia prefers to redirect its energy resources towards other regions of the world”, such as China, with which billionaire agreements have already been signed, but not only.
Alexei Miller, number one of Gazprom, explained that "the South Stream project is finished" and that the Russian oil giant will build together with the Turkish Botas a new oil pipeline in Turkey with a capacity of 63 billion cubic meters (coincidentally the same as South Stream), including 14 bcm to replace transit through Ukraine.
The new gas pipeline, Miller explained, would make it possible to transport about 50 billion cubic meters to the border with Greece. The starting point will be the Russkaya Compressor Station, initially planned for the South Stream.
Gazprom will create a new legal body in Russia for the gas pipeline in Türkiye. The Italian Eni (20%), the French Edf and the Wintershall group (both 15%) are also partners in the South Stream project.
“The project had to be financed 70% by debt and 30% by equity and our exposure was 600 million – explained the CEO of Eni, Claudio Descalzi, on 4 November in a parliamentary hearing -. The partners are now struggling to find funding, but ENI could never, ever put 2,4 billion on the project. We have the contractual opportunity to exit and we will evaluate it”.
The Italian government is also following the same line, which very recently changed its orientation: the Minister of Industry Federica Guidi said that for our country "South Stream is no longer on the list of priorities".
