Russia and Bulgaria agreed to create a joint venture to implement the South Stream gas pipeline project in the Balkan country, dpa quoted the Bulgarian news agency BTA as reporting today. "We reached a major understanding over the roadmap," Bulgarian Energy Minister Trajcho Trajkov said in the Bulgarian port Varna, on the sidelines of talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Shmatko. The two sides have yet to hammer out the details of the project, including concrete dates, the path and the capacity of the pipeline that is to supply Russian gas to Italy via the Black Sea and the Balkans. The 3,600-kilometre South Stream pipeline will bypass Ukraine, with which Russia has had several rows leading to gas delivery stoppages, by traversing the Black Sea. The project cost will exceed 20 billion dollars, according to various estimates. The South Stream project competes with the European Union's Nabucco pipeline project, which aims to reduce Western dependency on Russian gas by bringing it in from the Caspian Sea platforms via Turkey to Bulgaria and the Balkans.
