BUDAPEST, Hungary, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- A team tasked with designing the Hungarian section of the South Stream gas pipeline will be selected within a month, Russian gas company Gazprom said.
Gazprom aims to build the South Stream gas pipeline through southern European to avoid geopolitically sensitive territory in Ukraine, which hosts most of the Russian gas bound for the European market currently.
Gazprom Chairman Alexei Miller met in Budapest with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to discuss Hungary's gas needs for the upcoming winter and implementation of South Stream.
"A bidding procedure is underway in Hungary for selecting a contractor to carry out design and survey activities, spatial planning and environmental impact assessment for South Stream's Hungarian section towards Baumgarten in Austria," the Russian company said in a statement Monday. "The designer will be selected before the end of October 2014."
Last week, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on members of the European Union to cancel their South Stream contracts as part of a punitive measure designed in response to Russia's stance on crises in Ukraine.
Hungary joined the EU in 2004.
Nevertheless, Gazprom said of the first of the 2.2 trillion cubic feet of gas per year designed for South Stream would be delivered in late 2015. Hungary would receive its first gas in 2017 and the entire project would reach full design capacity by 2018.
