Austria to Officially Join South Stream Pipeline

Austria will formally sign up as a participant in the South Stream gas pipeline during and upcoming visit to the country by Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 24,

Russian gas is planned to flow to the Austrian hub of Baumgarten commencing in January 2018.

On Tuesday, Gerhard Roiss, CEO of Austria's OMV, had called on the European Union to speed up the implementation of the South Stream project.

In April, Gazprom and OMV signed a memorandum of understanding to build a spur of the South Stream gas pipeline to Austria.

At that time Roiss commented that the deal marked ".... an important step to significantly increase Austria’s security of gas supply and will further strengthen Baumgarten’s role as key hub for gas in Central and Eastern Europe. Our nearly 50 years lasting partnership with Gazprom has contributed to this successful step in further diversifying Europe’s energy supply routes.”