The Gazprom headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Leonid Chugunov, Head of the Project Management Department and Marjan Eberlinc, Director General of Plinovodi.

The parties discussed the Russian-Slovenian cooperation within the South Stream project. It was highlighted that on September 5, 2012 the South Stream Slovenia LLC joint project company was set up to implement the Slovenian section of the project which was progressing according to the preset schedule.

Leonid Chugunov and Marjan Eberlinc also addressed the agenda of the first constituent meeting of the South Stream Slovenia LLC shareholders to be held in early October 2012 in Ljubliana.

Background

In 2011 Gazprom supplied Slovenia with 0.53 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

With a view to diversify the natural gas export routes Gazprom is implementing the South Stream project. The projected throughput of the South Stream offshore section will reach 63 billion cubic meters per year. Construction of South Stream will start in December 2012. The first gas pipeline string is to be commissioned in late 2015.

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

On May 27, 2010 Gazprom and Plinovodi signed the Feasibility Study Agreement for the South Stream section in Slovenia.

On March 22, 2011 Gazprom and Plinovodi signed the Shareholders Agreement on South Stream Slovenia LLC being set up on a parity basis to implement South Stream in Slovenia. The company will be engaged in project documents preparation, fundraising, construction and operation of the gas pipeline in Slovenia.