Prime Minister Borut Pahor will sign a deal in Russia Saturday for the construction through Slovenia of the massive South Stream gas pipeline to western Europe, a government minister said Thursday.
"Negotiations have been successfully concluded. Therefore we will sign the deal on Saturday," Economy Minister Matej Lahovnik told journalists in Ljubljana.
He said the South Stream pipeline is extremely important for Slovenia, "especially in light of the dispute we are permanently witnessing between Russia and Ukraine and the trouble in supply through the existing network."
The pipeline, with a capacity of 10 billion cubic meters, will be constructed by a company co-owned by Russia's gas giant Gazprom and Slovenia's gas distributor Geoplin Plinovodi.
The signing will take place in Moscow the same day that the national squads of the two countries meet in the football World Cup playoffs.
South Stream is one of two major gas pipeline projects that Russia is developing, aimed at consolidating its commanding position in supplies of gas to Europe.