The project of the South Stream pipeline, which is being pushed by Gazprom as the alternative to Nabucco for natural gas distribution in Europe, was reviewed as part of the bilateral discussions between Romania and Russia, which took place on Tuesday, in Bucharest. When asked if Romania was officially invited to join South Stream, the minister of the Economy, Adriean Videanu, replied: "As far as I know, Transgaz received an official invitation to review this possibility".
Discussions between Transgaz and Gazprom for the cooperation as part of the South Stream are in an incipient stage, currently dealing with technical details, that the Russia company requested for the elaboration of the preliminary feasibility study. Gigel Bratiloveanu, economic advisor with the Romanian embassy of Russia, yesterday said as part of the sixth reunion of the economic advisors, that Gazprom did not elucidate the details of the South Stream pipeline, which are currently in the preliminary feasibility stage.
Mr. Bratiloveanu said: "For now, everything is still in the evaluation stage, and Russia is discussing with all the countries which are involved and interested in the project. Once details on the South Stream project become less sketchy, most likely talks on Romania"s potential involvement in the project will move to a more advanced stage".