Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee participated in the Board of Directors meeting of the South Stream Transport B.V. joint company in Amsterdam to discuss the signing of the pipe supply contracts for its offshore section.
The South Stream gas pipeline is Gazprom’s global infrastructure project aimed at constructing a gas pipeline with a capacity of 63B m3 across the Black Sea to Southern and Central Europe. 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 first gas will be supplied via South Stream in late 2015.
The Board members noted a significant progress of the project. They approved the signing of pipe supply contracts for the first out of four lines of the 931km offshore gas pipeline and gave a mandate to complete the negotiations on the pipe laying work. The South Stream Transport B.V. joint company will sign contracts for procurement of some 75,000 pipes (813mm diameter and 39mm wall thickness) in January. Shortly after, the company will launch a tender for supplying pipes for the second offshore line.
The Board of Directors noted that the negotiations with potential contractors were progressing fast and confirmed that construction contracts for the offshore section should be signed by the end of March 2014.