MOSCOW, July 29. /ITAR-TASS/. Construction and use of South Stream pipeline sea part will not considerably affect Black Sea and Bulgarian coast environment, said operator of the pipeline’s sea section South Stream Transport.

The company evaluated the project’s environmental and social impact in cooperation with experts from URS Infrastructure and Environment UK Limited.

Turkish environmental ministry earlier approved the report on environmental impact on the pipeline’s sea section to cross Turkey’s economic zone that confirmed the project would not harm sea ecology and fishing in the Turkish sector.

South Stream system is aimed to increase reliability of Russian natural gas supplies to Central and Southeastern Europe as it is a new transportation route providing new supply capacities. The 931-kilometer long sea section will be laid from Russia’s Black Sea coast near the city of Anapa through Turkey’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea to Bulgaria’s coast near the city of Varna.

South Stream Transport B.V. is an international joint venture set up to plan, construct and use a gas pipeline on Black Sea bed. Russian monopoly gas exporter Gazprom holds 50% of the JV sharing it with the Italian company Eni (20%), French EDF and German Wintershall (15% each).