Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom will not abandon its plans to implement the South Stream gas pipeline project, even if it reaches agreement with Ukraine on operating its gas transportation system, Gazprom export head Alexander Medvedev said on Wednesday.
At their ongoing gas price talks, Moscow and Kiev have been recently discussing the possibility of creating a joint venture to operate the Ukrainian gas transportation system, a core transit route for Russian natural gas supplies to Europe.
"Even if we take into account the Nord Stream, the South Stream, the Nabucco (western-backed rival project) and liquefied natural gas, all the same, the shortage of gas supplies to Europe will be some 15-20 billion cubic meters," Medvedev told reporters.
Russia plans to launch the South Stream pipeline, intended to carry Russian natural gas to Europe along the Black Sea bed, in 2015. The pipeline will transport up to 63 billion cubic meters of gas to central and southern Europe, diversifying Russian gas routes away from transit countries such as Ukraine.
The neighboring ex-Soviet republic accounts for 80 percent of Russian gas transit to EU nations but frequent rows with Moscow over gas prices have sometimes ended with Kiev switching the gas tap off in wintertime.
Kommersant business daily reported in mid-December that Gazprom might lower the gas price for Ukraine to $210-220 per 1,000 cu m from the current $400, if Kiev sold part of its gas transportation system to Moscow.
Medvedev also said the South Stream gas pipeline could be laid across the north of Italy instead of Austria, which was actively supporting the rival Nabucco project intended to pump Central Asian gas to Europe and bypassing Russia.
