Possible participation of Slovenia in Russian project "Južni tok"

(Južni tok)

Today (April 11, 2008), during the visit to Slovenia, President of the Administrative Board of Russian company "Gazprom", Aleksej Miler, talked with Slovenian President Danilo Tirko and Prime Minister Janez Janša about prospects of cooperation in gas sector and possible participation of Slovenia in realization of project for construction of gas pipeline "Južni tok".

According to the project, gas pipeline "Južni tok" will go from Russia to Bulgaria beneath the Black Sea, and that it will be divided into two branches - one will go across Serbia to Hungary and Austria, while the other will go accross Greece to the south of Italy.

The capacity of the future gas pipeline, which, according to the plans, should be built prior to year 2012, will be 30 billion cubic meters of gas.

According to the announcement of Russian concern and the reports of Slovenian agency "STA", the two sides confirmed their interest in strengthening long-term partnership between Russia and Slovenia, and they also talked about energy security issues in EUrope and all around the world.

Russia has been delivering gas to Slovenia since 1978. Last year, "Gazprom export" exported about 0.59 billion cubic meters of gas to that country.

In 2005, "Gazprom" signed new contract with Slovenian company "Geoplin Ljubljana" on supply of gas prior to year 2017.