Reuters: EC to delay Russian South Stream gas pipeline talks-paper

EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger is to delay talks with Russia on the South Stream gas pipeline project aimed at bringing Russian gas via the Black Sea, he told a German newspaper on Monday, in response to the crisis in Crimea.

"I won't accelerate talks about pipelines such as South Stream for the time being, they will be delayed," Oettinger, a German national, said in daily paper Die Welt.

Oettinger said that Europe was not facing a gas supply problem as a diplomatic solution is sought to Russian troops taking control of Crimea following the collapse of Ukraine's government. Energy stocks are ample and the winter is ending, taking urgency out of heating requirements.

Russia has started building South Stream, which would bypass Ukraine, to bring up to 15 percent of Europe's annual gas demand to the European Union via the Black Sea by 2018.

But the plan of state-controlled gas producer Gazprom has been frequently put into doubt over legal conflicts with the EU, which is seeking to wean itself off over-reliance on Russia for gas supplies.  MORE