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169883
Tue, 03/22/2011 - 08:14
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http://m.oananews.org//node/169883
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Energy issues to be in focus at Putin's talks in Slovenia
MOSCOW, March 22 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin goes on Tuesday to Slovenia, where he will hold talks with the country leadership, where energy issues will be in the focus.
According to Yuri Ushakov, deputy head of the government staff in
charge of foreign policy issues, the prime minister will hold large-scale talks with his counterpart Borut Pahor as well as will meet the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Pavel Gantar.
Some ten documents are prepared for the signing in Ljubljana.
Agreements will be signed on setting up a joint company that will design, build and operate the Slovenian section of the South Stream gas pipeline, Ushakov said.
Traditionally, the energy issue is the focal point on the bilateral agenda. Intergovernmental agreements have been signed with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria for the implementation of the land section of the project.
A composite feasibility study of the South Stream project is being
prepared. The cost of the pipeline and its final route will be determined on its results.
South Stream, which will be jointly built by Gazprom and ENI, will
eventually take 30 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas a year to southern Europe, with Greece becoming a transit state on the southern arm of the pipeline pumping gas to Italy.
Analysts have said that the project, which aims to link Gazprom's
Siberian gas fields with Europe and is seen as a competitor to the
EU-backed Nabucco pipeline, will cost around 10 billion euro, or 15.82
billion U.S. dollars.
The projected South Steam gas transit pipeline starts at the
Beregovaya compressor station at the Russian Black Sea coast. It would run through the Black Sea to the Bulgarian port of Varna, where it splits - the southwestern pipe would go to southern Italy via Greece, whereas the northwestern route would go through Serbia to northern Italy, possibly including Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, and Austria.
The construction of South Stream is to begin in 2013. The
commissioning of the first section, expected to transport 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas a year, is scheduled for December 30, 2015. New sections will be commissioned yearly up till the year 2018, when the pipeline capacity will reach 63 billion cubic meters.
The 900-kilometre-long undersea section of the pipeline will run from the gas compressor facility at Beregovaya, on Russia's Black Sea coast, near Arkhipo-Osipovka, towards the city of Burgas, in Bulgaria. The sea's maximum depth on this route is 2,000 metres.
On the ground the pipeline will split. One (southwestern) branch will be laid across Bulgaria and Greece and the Adriatic Sea towards Brindisi, in Italy, and the other (northwestern one) may follow either of the two routes still being considered - Bulgaria-Serbia-Hungary-Austria, or Bulgaria-Serbia-Croatia, Slovenia-Austria.
A memorandum on mutual understanding between Russia's Gazpromneft and the Slovenian energy company Petrol is to be signed among other documents.
Besides, Russia and Slovenia will sign an intergovernmental agreement on the establishment and activity of centers of science and culture,
memorandums of understanding and cooperation in the sphere of agriculture, as well as in the sphere of standardization. Representatives of Russia's Ulyanovsk region and the Slovenian Economics Ministry will sign a memorandum on cooperation.
"In 2009 trade between Russia and Slovenia declined by 41 percent,"Ushakov noted. However, the two countries managed to quickly improve the situation in 2010, increasing trade by 38 percent, he added. "As a result trade turnover amounted to 1.2 billion dollars, which practically means that we have returned to the pre-crisis level," Ushakov said.
He said that at the present moment about 200 Slovenian companies
operate in 50 Russian regions. The Russian delegation accompanying the
prime minister includes Minister of Communications and Mass Media Igor
Shchegolev, Minister of Agriculture Yelena Skrynnik, Energy Minister
Sergei Shmatko and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller.
On March 23, Vladimir Putin will leave Ljubljana for Belgrade, where his two-day Balkan tour will end.
According to Yuri Ushakov, deputy head of the government staff in
charge of foreign policy issues, the prime minister will hold large-scale talks with his counterpart Borut Pahor as well as will meet the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Pavel Gantar.
Some ten documents are prepared for the signing in Ljubljana.
Agreements will be signed on setting up a joint company that will design, build and operate the Slovenian section of the South Stream gas pipeline, Ushakov said.
Traditionally, the energy issue is the focal point on the bilateral agenda. Intergovernmental agreements have been signed with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria for the implementation of the land section of the project.
A composite feasibility study of the South Stream project is being
prepared. The cost of the pipeline and its final route will be determined on its results.
South Stream, which will be jointly built by Gazprom and ENI, will
eventually take 30 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas a year to southern Europe, with Greece becoming a transit state on the southern arm of the pipeline pumping gas to Italy.
Analysts have said that the project, which aims to link Gazprom's
Siberian gas fields with Europe and is seen as a competitor to the
EU-backed Nabucco pipeline, will cost around 10 billion euro, or 15.82
billion U.S. dollars.
The projected South Steam gas transit pipeline starts at the
Beregovaya compressor station at the Russian Black Sea coast. It would run through the Black Sea to the Bulgarian port of Varna, where it splits - the southwestern pipe would go to southern Italy via Greece, whereas the northwestern route would go through Serbia to northern Italy, possibly including Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, and Austria.
The construction of South Stream is to begin in 2013. The
commissioning of the first section, expected to transport 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas a year, is scheduled for December 30, 2015. New sections will be commissioned yearly up till the year 2018, when the pipeline capacity will reach 63 billion cubic meters.
The 900-kilometre-long undersea section of the pipeline will run from the gas compressor facility at Beregovaya, on Russia's Black Sea coast, near Arkhipo-Osipovka, towards the city of Burgas, in Bulgaria. The sea's maximum depth on this route is 2,000 metres.
On the ground the pipeline will split. One (southwestern) branch will be laid across Bulgaria and Greece and the Adriatic Sea towards Brindisi, in Italy, and the other (northwestern one) may follow either of the two routes still being considered - Bulgaria-Serbia-Hungary-Austria, or Bulgaria-Serbia-Croatia, Slovenia-Austria.
A memorandum on mutual understanding between Russia's Gazpromneft and the Slovenian energy company Petrol is to be signed among other documents.
Besides, Russia and Slovenia will sign an intergovernmental agreement on the establishment and activity of centers of science and culture,
memorandums of understanding and cooperation in the sphere of agriculture, as well as in the sphere of standardization. Representatives of Russia's Ulyanovsk region and the Slovenian Economics Ministry will sign a memorandum on cooperation.
"In 2009 trade between Russia and Slovenia declined by 41 percent,"Ushakov noted. However, the two countries managed to quickly improve the situation in 2010, increasing trade by 38 percent, he added. "As a result trade turnover amounted to 1.2 billion dollars, which practically means that we have returned to the pre-crisis level," Ushakov said.
He said that at the present moment about 200 Slovenian companies
operate in 50 Russian regions. The Russian delegation accompanying the
prime minister includes Minister of Communications and Mass Media Igor
Shchegolev, Minister of Agriculture Yelena Skrynnik, Energy Minister
Sergei Shmatko and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller.
On March 23, Vladimir Putin will leave Ljubljana for Belgrade, where his two-day Balkan tour will end.
