Energy

The confrontation between the Russia and the West over Ukraine will not cancel the planned construction of the South Stream gas pipeline, according to OMV CEO Gerhard Roiss.

Roiss, as cited by RIA Novosti, commented that the gas pipeline project was a 50-year project and a delay of a few months was not an issue.

The international tender issued by the government last week for oil drilling in 20 areas in the Ionian Sea, Western Greece and off Crete, contains terms that can only be met by very large oil companies. Environment and Energy Ministry officials confirmed that these terms result from a targeted strategy to attract oil giants, mainly dictated by the great depths of the areas to be drilled.

A new parliamentary report made public Aug. 7 has stated that controversial hydroelectric plants (HES) constitute more than 90 percent of Turkey’s renewable energy production but expressed worries about their damaging effects.

Radan Kanev of the Reformist Bloc will contest the construction permit for the South Stream pipeline compressor station in the Pasha Dere area near Varna, reports Dnevnik.bg. 

Strip mine field, shut down by floods, resumes production

BELGRADE -- Coal production resumed on Thursday in the Veliki Crljeni coal seam of the Kolubara mining basin, which was heavily affected by the May flooding.

LAZAREVAC - Coal production resumed Thursday in Veliki Crljeni coal seam at the Kolubara mining basin, which was heavily affected by the May flooding, and Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Aleksandar Antic announced that the first quantities of coal will be sent to the Obrenovac thermal power plant Nikola Tesla (TENT) this weekend.

BELGRADE - Srbijagas director Dusan Bajatovic says that the first 30 kilometers of the South Stream pipeline section through Serbia will be laid by the end of 2014, and the route will change in Vojvodina, as it will not go to Italy but to Baumgarten in Austria.

Ekaterina Zaharieva, caretaker Deputy Prime Minister, has vowed to make as much information as possible on the South Stream gas pipeline project publicly available.

In a Thursday interview for private TV station bTV, Zaharieva argued that at least the basic terms of contracts of this type had to be made public.

Serbia to build first 30km of South Stream by end of year

BELGRADE -- By the end of 2014 the first 30 kilometers of the South Stream gas pipeline will be built in Serbia, Dušan Bajatović has announced.

The head of the country's public natural gas enterprise, Srbijagas, also said the pipeline route would be changed in the northern province of Vojvodina.

By Tom Ellis