Nabucco is out of the picture, giving all the more impetus to its Russian-backed rival, South Stream. Construction is being launched in those countries involved, but Hungary and its partners along the route within the EU are raising concerns that the bloc’s energy regulations might possibly prevent the project. 

Serbia was the latest country to announce it had started construction of the South Stream natural gas pipeline, a project backed by Russian energy giant Gazprom. The news follows a similar announcement from Bulgaria at the end of October, while Turkey announced it would be launching work on its own territory in 2014.

The pipeline is planned to be 2,385 kilometers long, realized in partnership with nine countries, including Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Italy and Russia, and has already called for far-reaching agreements between national governments as well as private sector participants involved in the implementation. The total investment required would be €17 billion, and it will provide a total annual capacity of 63 million cubic meters of gas.  MORE