Countries of Danube region support South Stream

BUDAPEST - Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria, and the chambers of commerce of these countries support the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline, arguing that it will help the economic development of these countries and they therefore expect that the EU and Russia will come to an agreement concerning the project.

Serbian Energy Minister Aleksandar Antic said that constructing South Stream and the gas interconnection with Bulgaria was an opportunity to revitalize the industry and build new production facilities.

Speaking at a conference in Budapest on the use of gas in the Danube region, Antic said that Serbia had only one gas supply route to rely on, and domestic sources met only 20 percent of domestic gas consumption.

He said a stronger regional cooperation in energy was called for, because energy security was not an issue concerning a single state, but rather the whole region.

Russia's Deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Janovsky said that the Danube region was where about 40 percent of Russian gas exports went, and many countries depended on the Russian gas transported through Ukraine, a reason why the construction of South Stream as an alternative supply route was extremely important.

Janovsky said that 69 billion cubic meters of "blue fuel" had been delivered to the Danube region in 2013 , which was about 50 percent of total consumption in those countries.

South Stream is one of the most important projects backed by Hungary for economic reasons and the pipeline is important to the whole of Europe, said representative of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Marton Sipos, stressing that it would reduce the risk of gas transit through Ukraine.

Representatives of the Bulgarian...