South Stream

South Stream
Route of South Stream; it was never built.
Route of South Stream; it was never built.
Location
CountryRussian Federation
European Union
Republic of Serbia
General directioneast–west
FromRusskaya compressor station near Anapa
Passes throughBlack Sea
Varna
Pleven
Zaječar
Paraćin
Gospođinci
Bački Breg
Hercegszántó
Tornyiszentmiklós
ToTarvisio, Italy
Baumgarten an der March, Austria
General information
TypeNatural gas
PartnersGazprom
Eni
EDF
Wintershall
Naftna Industrija Srbije
Srbijagas
OperatorSouth Stream Transport AG
National project companies
Technical information
Length2,380 km (1,480 mi)
Maximum discharge63 billion cubic metres per annum (2.2×10^12 cu ft/a)
No. of compressor stations10

South Stream (Russian: Южный поток, romanized: Yuzhnyy potok; Bulgarian: Южен поток, romanized: Južen potok; Serbian: Јужни ток; Slovene: Južni tok; Hungarian: Déli Áramlat; Italian: Flusso Meridionale) is a canceled pipeline project to transport natural gas of the Russian Federation through the Black Sea to Bulgaria and through Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia further to Austria. It was never finished.

The project was found in non-compliance with the European Union's Third Energy Package legislation, which stipulates the separation of companies' generation and sale operations from their transmission networks.[1][2] The Russian Government cancelled the project on 1 December 2014, seven years after the project was started.[3]

It was seen as rival to the Nabucco pipeline project,[4] which was abandoned in favor of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline. Unlike South Stream, TAP is fully compliant with EU legislation by way of having obtained EU Third Party Access Exemption.

Construction of the Russian onshore facilities for the South Stream pipeline started in December 2012.[5] The project was cancelled by Russia in December 2014 following obstacles from the European Union, the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, and the resulting imposition of European sanctions on Russia.[6][7] The project has been replaced by other proposed ones Tesla pipeline and Turkish Stream.[8] The latter, renamed as TurkStream, was approved and later completed, sending gas supplies to Bulgaria on 1 January 2020.[9]

  1. ^ "EU calls for South Stream suspension". Upstream Online. NHST Media Group. 28 May 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
  2. ^ Overland, Indra. "The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Gazprom Encounters EU Regulation". In Anderson, Svein; Goldthau, Andreas; Sitter, Nick (eds.). Energy Union: Europe's New Liberal Mercantilism?. Blasingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan. pp. 115–130.
  3. ^ "Putin drops South Stream gas pipeline to EU, courts Turkey". Reuters. 1 December 2014. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference downstream150509 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference platts151112 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Putin drops South Stream gas pipeline to EU, courts Turkey, Reuters, Darya Korsunskaya
  7. ^ By Jim Yardley and Jo Becker (30 December 2014). "How Putin Forged a Pipeline Deal That Derailed". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 December 2014. Mr. Putin, on a state visit to Turkey, announced that South Stream was dead
  8. ^ Geropoulos, Kostis (20 August 2015). "Greece, Serbia, Hungary, FYROM to sign memorandum on the construction of the pipeline, which should connect the Turkish Stream pipeline with Austria". New Europe. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  9. ^ "Russia begins TurkStream gas flows to Greece, North Macedonia". Reuters. 5 January 2020. Retrieved 28 November 2020.