Russia expects Hungary to sign an agreement to join the South Stream natural gas pipeline to carry Russian gas to Europe Thursday, according to a statement posted on the Russian government web site Tuesday.
"Hungary's prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany has accepted the proposal to visit Moscow for this purpose, [and] meet with President Vladimir Putin, and this [the signing] will take place on Thursday, February 28," the government press office cited Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as saying late Monday.
On Monday, Medvedev met with Gyurcsany to discuss the project in Budapest. During the meeting, "we agreed on the draft intergovernmental agreement on cooperation to build the gas pipeline to transit natural gas via Hungary," Medvedev was quoted as saying in the statement. "By this, we have created the opportunity for Hungary to join the new South Stream route as well as an underground gas facility project."
If Hungary signs the agreement to join South Stream, it would strike a serious blow to the rival Nabucco gas pipeline project, backed by the European Union and the US.
Nabucco, which is yet to secure gas sources for the route, is a planned Eur5 billion ($7.4 billion) pipeline with capacity of up to 30 billion cubic meters/year (1.06 Tcf), which would carry gas from the Caspian Sea region to Europe via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria.
South Stream, led by Russia's Gazprom and Italy's Eni, envisages construction of a 900 km pipeline across the Black Sea into Bulgaria and on to southern Europe. The 30 Bcm/year link is to start operating in 2013.
Gazprom has already signed agreements with Bulgaria and Serbia to build the route via their territories.
Last Friday, Russia's industry and energy ministry said Greece was also interested in joining the project.
Gazprom and Hungary expect to set up a 50:50 joint venture to build the project in that country, the two prime ministers said after the Monday meeting, as reported by Russia's Prime-Tass news agency.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, who also took part in the Monday meeting, said that the project would go beyond Hungary's boundaries, but declined to speak on further sections of the route.
"Hungary is not the final point of the South Stream project," Miller was quoted as saying by Prime-Tass. "In the near future, you will here about [further] talks on the project's development," he told reporters in Budapest.
Miller also said his company had not received any official proposals from the Nabucco project developers.
"Gazprom has not received any proposals to join Nabucco," Miller said. He added that finding gas sources remains the main question for Nabucco.
Members of the Nabucco consortium have repeatedly said they might source gas for its project in Russia, apart from the Caspian region, which they believe could become the main supplier of gas for the route.
"Hungary's prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany has accepted the proposal to visit Moscow for this purpose, [and] meet with President Vladimir Putin, and this [the signing] will take place on Thursday, February 28," the government press office cited Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as saying late Monday.
On Monday, Medvedev met with Gyurcsany to discuss the project in Budapest. During the meeting, "we agreed on the draft intergovernmental agreement on cooperation to build the gas pipeline to transit natural gas via Hungary," Medvedev was quoted as saying in the statement. "By this, we have created the opportunity for Hungary to join the new South Stream route as well as an underground gas facility project."
If Hungary signs the agreement to join South Stream, it would strike a serious blow to the rival Nabucco gas pipeline project, backed by the European Union and the US.
Nabucco, which is yet to secure gas sources for the route, is a planned Eur5 billion ($7.4 billion) pipeline with capacity of up to 30 billion cubic meters/year (1.06 Tcf), which would carry gas from the Caspian Sea region to Europe via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria.
South Stream, led by Russia's Gazprom and Italy's Eni, envisages construction of a 900 km pipeline across the Black Sea into Bulgaria and on to southern Europe. The 30 Bcm/year link is to start operating in 2013.
Gazprom has already signed agreements with Bulgaria and Serbia to build the route via their territories.
Last Friday, Russia's industry and energy ministry said Greece was also interested in joining the project.
Gazprom and Hungary expect to set up a 50:50 joint venture to build the project in that country, the two prime ministers said after the Monday meeting, as reported by Russia's Prime-Tass news agency.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, who also took part in the Monday meeting, said that the project would go beyond Hungary's boundaries, but declined to speak on further sections of the route.
"Hungary is not the final point of the South Stream project," Miller was quoted as saying by Prime-Tass. "In the near future, you will here about [further] talks on the project's development," he told reporters in Budapest.
Miller also said his company had not received any official proposals from the Nabucco project developers.
"Gazprom has not received any proposals to join Nabucco," Miller said. He added that finding gas sources remains the main question for Nabucco.
Members of the Nabucco consortium have repeatedly said they might source gas for its project in Russia, apart from the Caspian region, which they believe could become the main supplier of gas for the route.
