OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) invited state-run gas pipeline operator Transgaz (TGN.RO) and not Romania to join the South Stream project, the country's Economy Minister Adriean Videanu said Monday, news agency Mediafax reported.
His latest comments contradict statements he made 10 days ago.
"Transgaz received [the invitation] as a commercial firm. That is all, not the Romanian state or the governmental institutions," Videanu said in reply to a Gazprom statement that denied one of his previous comments in which he said Romania was invited to join South Stream.
Feb. 19, Videanu said Gazprom extended a formal invitation to the Romanian authorities to join the South Stream pipeline project and to expand natural gas co-operation beyond Romania's borders.
The statement came two days after a meeting between Videanu and Gazprom's Deputy Chairman Alexander Medvedev in Bucharest.
The Russian-backed South Stream pipeline project is regarded as the main rival of the Nabucco project, in which Romania has already pledged to participate.