The state-owned Hungarian Development Bank and the Russian state-owned Gazprom energy company has established a project company today to start development works related to the building of the Russian-initiated South Stream natural gas pipeline in Hungary. The pipeline is competing with the EU-initiated Nabucco pipeline that would follow a similar route, however, it would allow to pump gas from a more diversified source. Like the North Stream pipeline, South Stream will bypass the current main route through Ukraine and will lessen Russia's dependence on transit country's to sell gas to the EU.
Image: Wikimedia
However, it is still unclear who will sell and who will buy gas through the South Stream system, so the building of the project is not entirely certain.
The day before the signature it was reported that Jacques Chirac refused Russian prime minister Putin's invitation to chair the South Stream consortium. If he did not decline, he would have been in the position with former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to directly discuss trade disputes between European consumers and Mr Putin. Mr Chirac is the second politician to refuse such an offer: former EU Commission President and Italian prime minister Romano Prodi had also declined the offer.
There are two countries in Central Europe which have the biggest stake in the Nabucco-South Stream race. Nabucco would only secure Romania's access to natural gas, while South Stream would only go through Serbia, a country that suffered a lot during last year's energy crisis.
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