Gazprom, Greek DESFA set up company to build South Stream section.

ATHENS, July 1 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's Gazprom gas giant and Greek
DESFA signed in Athens on Wednesday an agreement to set up the South
Stream Greece A.E. joint venture that will build the Greek section of the
South Stream gas pipeline, the Greek Ministry of Environment, Energy and
Climate Change reported on Thursday. Each of the companies will have the
equal share of 50 percent in the joint venture.
Greek Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change Tina Birbili
and Russia's Ambassador to Greece Vladimir Chkhikishvili were present at
the signing ceremony. After that, the first session of the technical
committee for the project was held. The feasibility study will be finished
before the end of 2011, while the gas pipeline is to be commissioned
before 2015.
The Greek minister stressed that "with the setting up of a joint
venture, another important step has been made towards the implementation
of the project for the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline,
which will to a great extent contribute to ensuring energy security of
Greece, as well as of Europe through diversification of routes to supply
energy sources".
South Stream is the project of a gas pipeline that will go across the
Black Sea to countries of Southern and Central Europe. The aim of the
construction is to diversity routes of gas exports.
The sea section will run on the floor of the Black Sea from the
compressor station Russkaya on the Russian coast to the coast of Bulgaria.
Its total length will be about 900 kilometres, and the maximum depth will
be two kilometres. The capacity of the offshore section will be up to 63
billion cubic meters a year.
In order to build the land section, intergovernmental agreements were
signed with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia and
Austria.
Natural gas will be transported from Russia's Novorossiisk seaport to
Austria and Italy through Bulgarian Varna seaport and the Balkan Pipeline.
The second stretch of the pipeline will link Greece and southern Italy
across the Adriatic Sea. Two lines will be laid from Bulgaria across the
Balkan Peninsula to Italy and Austria. The deliveries will start in 2015.

.Vladivostok marks 150th anniversary.

VLADIVOSTOK, July 1 (Itar-Tass) - Festivities marking the 150th
anniversary of Russia's Far Eastern city of Vladivostok begin here on
Thursday. The program includes dozens of exhibitions, concerts, a youth
festival, youth rowing competitions and other events, sources from the
press service of the mayor's office told Tass.
The program of festivities will begin with meetings of city Mayor Igor
Pushkaryov with delegations from countries of the Asia-Pacific Region.
Fourteen delegations have arrived here to mark the anniversary, including
ten delegations from sister cities in Japan, South Korea, the USA, China,
North Korea, Ecuador and Malaysia. Russian cities are represented by a
delegation from Vladikavkaz, which became Vladivostok's sister city one
year ago.
The main festivities will be held on July 2 to 4. Over 35,000
residents of the city are expected to watch concerts in which not only
Russian singers, but also singers and musical bands from sister cities
will take part.
A military post was founded here on July 2, 1860, and was named
Vladivostok.

.Progress cargo craft to be dumped into Pacific Ocean.

MOSCOW, July 1 (Itar-Tass) - A Progress cargo craft that has spent
about a month-and-a-half on the earth orbit as a scientific laboratory
will be on Thursday dumped into a special dump section of the Pacific
Ocean, Russian Mission Control Centre's spokesman Valery Lyndin said on
Thursday.
He said at 17:53 the craft will begin deorbiting, and 47 minutes later
its unburnt sections will reach the ocean.
The Progress undocked from the International Space Station on May 10
and was moved to a lower orbit. A geophysical experiment was carried out
during its autonomous flight, Mission Control Centre's specialists said.
Before the spacecraft undocked from the ISS, the crew of the station
had manually loaded it with over one ton of garbage and waste equipment.
It is difficult to give the exact weight of the waste, but the spacecraft
is fully loaded.
Progress will be dumped into a special section of the Pacific Ocean,
far from navigation routes.

.Two Russian patrol craft to call at South Korean port of Mukho.

VLADIVOSTOK, July 1 (Itar-Tass) - Two Russian patrol craft will early
in July call at the South Korean port of Mukho for a business visit,
sources from the press service of the FSB border control department in
Primorye told Tass on Thursday.
The Herluf Bidstrup and the Bug will visit the port from July 6 to
July 9. The program of the visit includes visits by crews of Russian and
Korean seamen, as well as by local residents, excursions and sports
competitions.
A joint tactical exercise is scheduled for July 7. Two Russian and
three South Korean ships, a Russian and a South Korean helicopter, four
motor boats (two from each side) and special task force will take part in
the exercise.
The exercise will train cooperation in fight against illegal activity
at sea - search, persecution and detention of a vessel seized by imaginary
terrorists, release of hostages, rescue of people at sea, as well as
putting out of fire breaking out on board the ship because of a bomb
explosion.
-0-zhe/


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