The Gazprom Board of Directors approved the work being done by the Company to implement the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline. It was noted that the construction process had undergone several milestones since the project moved to its investment stage in November 2012.

On December 7, 2012 the South Stream construction began near Anapa in the Krasnodar Territory. On October 31, 2013 the first joint was welded at South Stream's Bulgarian section near the Rasovo CS site. On November 24, 2013 the construction of South Stream's Serbian section started in the vicinity of Sajkas village, South Backa District.

All the design and survey activities are completed for a deep-water section. The design of South Stream's sections in the Russian and Bulgarian sectors of the Black Sea is nearing completion. The bidding procedure is organized for the selection of pipe supply and deep-water laying contractors. Approval is received with regard to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Russian offshore section.

The bidding procedure is performed for the selection of a contractor to be responsible for design and survey activities, spatial planning and EIA procedures related to the Hungarian section that is next in turn. The construction of South Stream's Hungarian section will begin in April 2015.

In Slovenia the work is underway on the preparation of EIA and spatial planning documents. In Croatia Gazprom and Plinovodi d.o.o are preparing to set up a joint project company. In addition, a draft agreement and a scope of work are being agreed on for devising design documents for the construction of a gas pipeline branch.

Based on the Roadmap signed in June 2013, an intergovernmental agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina is being prepared with regard to cooperation within power generation projects in Republika Srpska.

In Russia the work is in progress on the construction of Southern Corridor – the gas transmission system designed, inter alia, for feeding gas into South Stream.

As planned, the first gas will be supplied via South Stream in late 2015. The gas pipeline will reach its full capacity in 2018.

Background

The South Stream gas pipeline is Gazprom's global infrastructure project aimed at constructing a gas pipeline with a capacity of 63 billion cubic meters across the Black Sea to Southern and Central Europe for the purpose of diversifying the natural gas export routes and eliminating transit risks.

South Stream's offshore section will run under the Black Sea from the Russkaya compressor station on the Russian coast to the Bulgarian coast. The total length of the Black Sea section will exceed 900 kilometers and its maximum depth will be more than two kilometers.

A 1,455-kilometer onshore section will cross Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia. The gas pipeline will end at the Tarvisio gas metering station in Italy. Gas branches from the main pipeline route will be built to Croatia and to Republika Srpska (the state formation within Bosnia and Herzegovina).

The Southern Corridor gas pipeline system will cross eight constituent entities of the Russian Federation, enabling additional natural gas deliveries to central and southern regions of Russia as well as securing uninterrupted gas supplies to the South Stream gas pipeline.