Today in Moscow the shareholders of South Stream Slovenia LLC signed in the presence of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa a Resolution to adopt the Final Investment Decision on building the Slovenian section of the South Stream gas pipeline. Gazprom was represented at the event by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company's Management Committee, the Slovenian party was represented by Marjan Eberlinc, Director General of Plinovodi and Sara Izernik, Deputy Director General of Plinovodi.

“The final investment decision we adopted today is another important step to the South Stream project implementation, another stage of our work, aimed at securing natural gas supplies to Europe.

Speaking of Slovenia, we have to mention that building a 266 kilometer gas pipeline and two compressor stations in Slovenia will attract great investments, create workplaces and supply the country with additional infrastructure,” said Alexey Miller.

Background

In 2011 Gazprom supplied Slovenia with 0.53 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

With a view to diversify the natural gas export routes Gazprom is implementing the South Stream project. The projected throughput of the South Stream offshore section will reach 63 billion cubic meters per year. Construction of South Stream will start in December 2012. The first gas pipeline string is to be commissioned in late 2015.

Intergovernmental agreements were signed with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria in order to implement the onshore gas pipeline section.

On May 27, 2010 Gazprom and Plinovodi signed the Feasibility Study Agreement for the South Stream section in Slovenia.

On March 22, 2011 Gazprom and Plinovodi signed the Shareholders Agreement on South Stream Slovenia LLC being set up on a parity basis to implement South Stream in Slovenia. The joint project company was registered in September 2012. It deals with project documents preparation, fundraising, construction and operation of the gas pipeline in Slovenia.

Being a subsidiary company of Geoplin, Plinovodi is a gas transmission system operator in the Republic of Slovenia. The main activities of the company include natural gas transmission, gas transmission network development and maintenance.