MOSCOW, June 27. /ITAR-TASS/. Italy is a key target market for the South Stream gas pipeline project, the CEO of Russia’s gas giant Gazprom, Alexei Miller told a briefing on Friday.

“Gas supplies via the South Stream ground section will be synchronized with commissioning of seabed sections of the pipeline,” he said.

In 2013, Gazprom exported 25.22 billion cubic metres of gas to Italy.

Gazprom sees the South Stream project as a means to diversify natural gas supplies to Europe and to reduce dependence on transit countries. The company has signed intergovernmental agreements with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria to realize the ground section of the project.

South Stream Transport B.V. is an international joint venture set up to do the planning and construction works and to operate the seabed pipeline to be laid across the Black Sea. Gazprom’s share in the company is 50%, Italy’s Eni holds a 20% stake, France’s EDF - 15% and Germany’s Wintershall Holding GmbH - also 15% The seabed section of the South Stream pipeline will run across the Black Sea bottom from the Russkaya compressor station in Russia to the Bulgarian coast at Varna. The overall length of the Black Sea section is more than 900 kilometres. The maximum depth is more than two kilometers. The section’s designed capacity is 63 billion cubic metres. The pipeline was planned to be commissioned in late 2015.