MOSCOW, April 18. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s top government official has said a European Parliament possible decision to suspend the South Stream gas project will not affect its implementation.

“Russia continues realising the project in compliance with the intergovernmental agreements. The work cannot be suspended,” Russian Energy Minister Aleksander Novak said on Friday.

The ministry continues consultations with the European Commission, he said.

On Thursday, April 17, the European Parliament (EP) adopted a resolution calling the EU authorities to immediately impose sanctions on Russian energy companies operating at the European market, to stop the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline and to revise all agreements with Russia.

South Stream is a strategic project for Europe's energy security and should be implemented by the end of 2015. Work is currently underway to draft a feasibility study for the marine section across the Black Sea and the surface section running through transit countries.

The overall capacity of the marine section of the pipeline will be 63 billion cubic metres per year. Its cost is about 8.6 billion euro.

The 900-kilometre-long undersea section of the pipeline will run from the gas compressor facility at Beregovaya, on Russia's Black Sea coast, near Arkhipo-Osipovka, towards the city of Burgas, in Bulgaria. The sea's maximum depth on this route is 2,000 metres.