Azernews.Az

BRUSSELS – A Russian-Bulgarian agreement on the South Stream gas pipeline project should be changed so that other European Union countries have access to the pipeline, European Commission representative Marlene Holzner was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying on Monday.

The 2008 agreement must comply with EU legislation which includes a requirement for providing access to gas transportation facilities to third parties and splitting sales and transportation businesses, she said. The legislation comes in force next March but includes a two-year adaptation period.

On Saturday, Russia's gas giant Gazprom and Bulgarian Energy Holding signed a deal to set up a joint venture to oversee construction of the Bulgarian section of the South Stream pipeline.

Gazprom said that the pipeline, designed to deliver up to 63 billion cubic meters of Central Asian and Russian gas via the Black Sea to southern Europe, may be put into operation by August 2015, four months earlier than previously planned.

Holzner said Bulgaria, which received full and unrestricted right to transit Russian natural gas through its territory, had assured the European Commission that the necessary changes would be made.

Holzner added that the South Stream gas pipeline project was very important, but did not provide diversification of gas resources, compared to the proposed rival Nabucco pipeline project which would pump gas from the Caspian Sea region to Europe, bypassing Russia.