Russian Timchenko’s Stroitransgaz quits South Stream project

MOSCOW, Aug 4 (PRIME) -- Russian construction company Stroitransgaz, 80% controlled by businessman Gennady Timchenko, left the project of laying the South Stream pipeline through Bulgaria for gas giant Gazprom’s Centrgaz, Timchenko told PRIME in an interview on Monday.

“We have won a tender and counted on contributing to the joint business, but, you see, mister McCain went to Bulgaria and talked the local government into rejecting our services. We have left the project to not jeopardize it. Stroitransgaz was meant to lay 500 kilometers of the on-land sector of the pipeline, and now Gazprom’s Centrgaz is to replace us,” he said.

The U.S. has blacklisted Timchenko after Crimea joined Russia.

A consortium of Stroitransgaz and Bulgarian Gazproekt Jug AD won a tender to build the Bulgarian part of the South Stream in May.

In June, Bulgaria suspended preparations for the construction of its part of the South Stream after U.S. senator John McCain’s visit and on orders from the E.U. authorities which said that the pipeline laying must be suspended until the project is fully adjusted to the union's legislation, including the third energy package, which prohibits the same company, Gazprom in this case, to be engaged in production, transportation, and sales of fuel.

The South Stream pipeline will carry Russian gas to the E.U. bypassing Ukraine. Gas will be pumped to the Bulgaria’s Black Sea port of Varna before extending overland through Serbia, Hungary, and Slovenia to supply gas to the Western Europe via Italy and Austria. The pipeline’s capacity amounts to 63 billion cubic meters.

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