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South Stream's Hungary route to be fixed early 2014

By then, project engineers South Stream Hungary, overseeing this section of the pipeline, will have completed technical sections of project documentation

MOSCOW, December 12. /ITAR-TASS/. Routing for the South Stream gas pipeline through Hungary will be determined in the first quarter of 2014.

By then, project engineers South Stream Hungary, overseeing this section of the pipeline, will have completed technical sections of project documentation, partner Gazprom reported on Thursday.

Negotiations between holding chief executive Alexei Miller and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban confirmed on Wednesday that construction would start in April 2015. First gas supplies would reach Hungary in early 2017. Project work was proceeding to schedule and the pipeline was already being built in Russia, Bulgaria and Serbia, the partners noted.

“Miller and Orban stressed the pipeline’s importance for the development of Hungary’s gas transportation infrastructure and economy, and for the purpose of European countries’ energy security,” a Gazprom statement said.

Negotiations between the project partners and an international consortium of engineering organisations has brought agreement and signings for design and survey work, spatial planning and environmental impact assessment.

South Stream's pipeline will have capacity to deliver 63 billion cubic meters across the Black Sea to South and Central Europe, aiming to diversify natural gas transportation routes and exclude transit risks. The route's land section will cross Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia.

At its end, the route will reach the gas distribution station in the Italian town of Tarvisio. Branches will be driven from the main route to Croatia and the Republika Srpska (a political entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina), 51 kilometers and 109 kilometers long respectively.