Reuters: OMV shrugs off impact of Russia's scrapping South Stream

Austrian energy group OMV's chief executive played down on Tuesday the importance of Russia's apparent cancelling of the South Stream gas pipeline project, saying investments in the Black Sea played a much bigger role for the company.

Extending South Stream to Austria as agreed this year would have cost OMV around 100 million euros ($125 million) over three years, compared with the $1 billion it will invest with partner Exxon Mobil to explore a Romanian project in the Black Sea that may produce its first gas by 2020, Gerhard Roiss said.

Russia surprisingly announced on Monday it had scrapped the $40 billion project to supply gas to Europe without crossing Ukraine.

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