MOSCOW, March 18 (UPI) -- Moscow clarified its position on the South Stream natural gas pipeline, saying it had no intentions of abandoning the project.
South Stream would move more than 2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to Europe per year after it passes through the Turkish waters of the Black Sea.
The project is one of Russia's options for diversifying gas transit options to Europe as uncertain ties between Ukraine and Moscow make conventional routes unreliable.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin told Russian business daily Kommersant that Russian gas company Gazprom considered construction of a liquefied natural gas plant on the Black Sea "an addition or an alternative to the pipeline option" raising questions that Moscow was abandoning South Stream.
But Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko was quoted by state-run news agency RIA Novosti as saying "we are not wording the issue in such a fundamental way."
Shmatko said the LNG option was an alternative option for delivering Russian gas to European consumers, not a replacement.
"We'll have several ready alternative routes of supplying gas directly to European consumers, and this is what our job implies," he said. "Currently, supplies of LNG from the Yamal Peninsula seem very promising."
