16-01-09 Russia's Gazprom and Italy's ENI have agreed to speed up work on a planned South Stream gas pipeline, which is to carry Russian gas directly to Europe across the Black Sea and reduce dependence on transit countries, Gazprom said.
The comment came after a meeting between Gazprom's CEO Alexei Miller and ENI CEO Paolo Scaroni in Moscow.

At the meeting, Miller told Scaroni about the current "critical situation in relationships with Ukraine and steps undertaken by Gazprom" to resolve the crisis. The two countries have failed so far to agree on terms of gas supplies to Ukraine and via Ukraine for 2009, which led to the stop in gas supplies to Ukraine from January 1.
Supplies of Russian gas to Europe have been halted since January 7, with Russia and Ukraine -- through whose territory some 80 % of Russian gas exports flow -- accusing each other over the failure to resume gas deliveries.

"The parties have noted that the issue of diversifying gas exports routes is becoming of high priority in the current circumstances," Gazprom said.
In particular, "the realization of the planned South Stream project will allow connecting Russia directly with Europe and strengthening the energy security of the continent," it said.

The South Stream project, developed by Gazprom together with Italy's ENI, will carry Russian gas across the Black Sea to Bulgaria, from where it will split into two paths. One line will run southwest to Greece and on to southern Italy. The other will go northwest via Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia to northern Italy, with an offshoot to Austria.
The plan calls for the 30 bn cmpy route to start operating in 2013.

In late October, however, Russian media reported that Gazprom was considering an increase of the line's capacity to 31 bn cmpy, with the timeframe for its commissioning to be delayed by two years.
Earlier, Miller said that capacities of South Stream as well as the other, similar project, Nord Stream across the Baltic Sea to Germany, might be increased andthe projects' timeframe advanced if countries participating in the projects were to make such a request.