Sputnik: South Stream Saga Coming to an End
The South Stream natural gas pipeline was designed to transport 63 billion cubic meters of Russian gas annually into central and southern Europe. It involved seven countries and was planned to span over 2,300 km.
The pipeline's route had been changed several times since it was officially announced back in 2007. From the very start it faced a strong rival – the Nabucco project, which was eventually cancelled in 2013 due to a number of geopolitical and financial issues. This year’s friction between Gazprom and the European Union over South Stream made some analysts wonder whether the project was going to be completed at all, with some researchers saying South Stream might turn into Russia's version of Nabucco. One of those analysts was Dr. Fred Beach, an assistant director for policy studies at the University of Texas’ Energy Institute in Austin.
“South Stream was very aggressive and very expensive, and obviously several political elements involved in it. But just as the project like South Stream is very expensive, it also takes a great deal of time to build, and as we’re seeing the market can change very rapidly based on changes in production and supply as well as changes in politics and national actions. So I’m not surprised to see that the project has collapsed but just as quickly as it collapsed it could be theoretically turned back on again,” Dr. Fred Beach said.