OREANDA-NEWS. March 23, 2011. Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Marjan Eberlinc, President of the Board of Geoplin plinovodi d.o.o. signed the South Stream Slovenia LLC Shareholders’ Agreement in Ljubljana (Slovenia) today as part of the official visit of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. South Stream Slovenia LLC is a joint project company being set up on a parity basis to implement the South Stream project in Slovenia.

South Stream Slovenia LLC is engaged in project documentation preparation, fundraising, construction and operation of the gas pipeline in Slovenia.

“Creation of the joint project company demonstrates a serious approach of Gazprom and Geoplin plinovodi to the South Stream project implementation in Slovenia. The project is to give a fresh impetus to the economy of Southern and Central Europe: South Stream is to create new jobs, attract investments and boost regional integration processes. Cooperation of energy companies within this multinational project will increase reliability and flexibility of Russian gas supply to the European markets,” Alexey Miller noted.

“With the accession to the creation of the joint venture company South Stream Slovenia, Geoplin plinovodi and Gazprom are concluding intensive and very successful preparatory activities, whereas with the signing of the agreement itself, the companies further confirm project's wider significance and role. South Stream project is an opportunity for Slovenia to strengthen, within the activities of Geoplin plinovodi and Gazprom, its international position on the list of countries with a safe and reliable energy transfer which is very important today. The project's significance is even greater because of the challenges that global energy policy faces due to the consequences of a wide range of natural and social phenomena we have been witnessing recently,” Marjan Eberlinc said.
Background

In order to diversify the export routes of natural gas supply Gazprom is planning to build a gas pipeline running under the Black Sea to the countries of Southern and Central Europe – the South Stream project.

It is planned that the South Stream capacity will be built up gradually. The projected throughput of the South Stream offshore section will reach a total of 63 billion cubic meters per year. The first string of the South Stream gas pipeline is planned to become operational by late 2015.

Intergovernmental agreements were signed with Slovenia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, Croatia and Austria in order to implement the onshore gas pipeline section.

On May 27, 2010 Gazprom and Geoplin Plinovodi d.o.o. signed the Feasibility Study Agreement identifying Geoplin Plinovodi d.o.o. as the FS customer. IBE d.d. was selected as the contractor following the results of a tender held in June 2010. The national FS has been accomplished so far and the companies are analyzing the appropriate results.