FT: South Stream gas project may now be a pipe dream
In November 2005, a pipeline called Blue Stream was inaugurated to bring Russian gas across the Black Sea to Turkey. It was, said President Vladimir Putin, who attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, “just the start”.
Mr Putin envisaged another Black Sea pipeline from Russia: a longer and more ambitious one, making landfall in Bulgaria and providing a handy southern conduit for Russian gas to the Balkans and eastern Europe – bypassing troublesome Ukraine. South Stream was born.
With Kremlin backing, this €15bn project always looked like a dead cert. But its future is looking increasingly murky. South Stream has become one of the biggest casualties of the east-west stand-off over Ukraine. There is now potential for huge delays. Sceptics wonder whether it will happen at all.
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