Moscow-based United Metallurgical Company (OMK) said it shipped the first batch
of pipes for the the South Stream gas pipeline from Rostov-on-Don in Russia to
the Bulgarian port of Burgas over the weekend.
The pipes will be used to
construct the first branch of the pipeline’s offshore segment, OMK said in a
statement published on its website earlier this week.
OMK will deliver
over 600 kilometres of pipes, or 35% of the total length of the pipeline, to
construct the first and second branches of South Stream’s offshore
segment.
Also on Monday, the European Commission sent the Bulgarian
authorities a letter of formal notice, asking the country to suspend the
implementation of the South Stream project until it is fully compliant with EU
law.
The European Commission sees two key problems regarding the
construction of the gas pipeline in Bulgaria - the fact that the South Stream
Bulgaria company has been awarded the design, financing, construction and
management of the gas pipeline without the relevant transparent competitive
bidding procedures; and that the contracts with subcontractors can give
precedence to particular Russian and Bulgarian companies, the state-run news
agency BTA reported.
The planned South Stream gas pipeline will carry gas
from Russia to central and southern Europe via Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and
Slovenia, reaching its full capacity of some 63 billion cubic metres per year by
2017. The total value of the Gazprom-spearheaded project is estimated at some 16
billion euro ($21.8 billion).