BRUSSELS, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- An agreement between Russia and Bulgaria on the South Stream natural gas pipeline doesn't meet European standards, an energy official said.
Russian gas monopoly Gazprom and Bulgarian Energy Holding agreed to form a joint venture by the end of November for the South Stream pipeline.
Moscow is looking to diversify its gas export options after rows with gas transit nation Ukraine exposed vulnerabilities in the regional energy sector.
Marlene Holzner, a spokeswoman for European Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger, said any agreement must comply with EU laws, Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti reports.
This includes allowing third parties access to gas transportation facilities. She added that while South Stream was important for European energy needs, it did little in terms of concrete diversification.
Europe aims to break Russia's grip on the regional energy sector with Nabucco, which would get gas supplies from non-Russian sources.
Sofia, she added, gave her assurances that necessary changes would be made to the pipeline agreement.
South Stream could move more than 2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to European consumers each year by 2015.
