MOSCOW, April 21 (UPI) -- A feasibility study for the South Stream natural gas pipeline has been competed for Serbia, Slovenia, Austria, Croatia and Romania, gas company Gazprom said.
Alexei Miller, the board chairman at Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom, met in Moscow with the management committee of Serbia's Srbijagas to discuss the project.
South Stream is one of Russia's options for diverting natural gas around geopolitically sensitive territory in Ukraine. Gazprom ships 80 percent of its natural gas to European markets through Soviet-era pipelines in Ukraine.
South Stream would terminate in Baumgarten in eastern Austria, the same location that Europe's Nabucco pipeline is designed to end.
South Stream is planned to 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. Gas flows are expected by 2015.
Gazprom said the focus of the meeting was to discuss feasibility studies for the onshore sections of the project in Europe.
