Platts: South Stream change sparks 'useful debate' on EU gas supply: EC

Russian President Vladimir Putin's surprise plan to re-route the 63 billion cubic meter/year South Stream gas project to the Turkish-Greek border has prompted a "useful debate" on EU gas security in southeast Europe, EU vice-president for energy union Maros Sefcovic said late Tuesday.

The European Commission has agreed with all the EU countries affected, except Hungary, to set up a high-level working group "to look at all the gas options for this region," Sefcovic told an event on the Southern Gas Corridor in Brussels.

"The first deliverable of the high-level working group will be to develop an action plan for integrating central and southeastern European gas markets," Sefcovic said separately in a formal joint statement with Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Romania and Slovenia late Tuesday.

This would involve particularly improving Bulgaria's links with its neighbors, improving north-south links and making them able to flow gas in both directions, the joint statement said.  MORE