The work of experts is largely relied upon the support of community and public organizations of several localities near Anapa where the pipeline will pass. Every concerned party may submit comments to the survey findings that would be registered and taken into account in the final EIA Report.

Marcel Kramer, CEO of South Stream Transport B.V., praised the active involvement of the local population in the preparation of the Report. He said: “The involvement of local communities helps us to better understand the potential effects of the Project on the environment, so that we can address these accordingly.”

The EIA process will end prior to the construction of the pipeline. The first line of the South Stream is planned for commissioning in late 2015.

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South Stream

The stand of Gazprom Group attracted visitors with Volkswagen “Scirocco” cars — unique sportcars for Scirocco R-Cup racing. Gazprom becomes an exclusive supplier of NGV fuel to this racing starting from May 2013. Vyacheslav Krupenkov, Senior Managing Director of Gazprom Germania GmbH, and Ulrich Hackenberg, Member of the Volkswagen Board of Management, in the presence of Viktor Zubkov, Gazprom’s Chairman of Board of Directors, signed a partnership agreement on the fair.

Exhibition participants highly appreciated the reliability, quality, usability and elegance of German racing gas-powered cars.

“We warmly welcome Gazprom as a new partner of Scirocco R-Cup. Environmentally clean and energy efficient motorsport is always the primary goal for Volkswagen. I am glad that we established this cooperation”, — said Ulrich Hackenberg. Viktor Zubkov expressed his confidence in future cooperation and emphasized that the Agreement with Volkswagen is a natural follow-up to mission on expanding the use of NGV fuel in Europe.

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Germany

The 2nd GECF Gas Summit will take place in Moscow, Russia in summer of 2013.

The meeting was attended by representatives from 10 Member Countries, namely Algeria, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Oman, Russia, Qatar, UAE, Venezuela and GECF Secretary General HE Leonid Bokhanovskiy.

Gas Exporting Countries Forum is an association of world’s leading natural gas export countries. The primary objective of interaction between the GECF members is to ensure the reliability and security of energy supply and demand. Forum’s Member Countries are Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Oman, Nigeria, Russia, Qatar, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Iraq, Kazakhstan, Netherlands and Norway are observer countries. First GECF Gas Summit was held in Doha, Qatar in November, 2011.

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Russian Ministry of Energy press release

During the recent Russian-Serbian summit in Moscow, the parties agreed that Russia will finance the project. The costs will be later reimbursed by recalculation of the transit fees. Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, confirmed that the Russian company is willing to secure the investment. "We are ready to finance the construction in full by own means, and the Serbian share will be paid back by tariff ", - he said.

The Serbian government considered this bid "very reasonable." Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said, that it will secure "the unhampered development of project."

Earlier, on February 21, 2013, the Serbian section of South Stream was granted the status of national project . Implementation of South Stream in Serbia started with the construction of an underground gas storage (UGS) "Banatski Dvor", which became operational in November 2011.

The South Stream project is aimed at strengthening the European energy security. Offshore section of the pipeline, 925 km, will run across the Black Sea from Russia to Bulgaria. Then the pipeline will pass through Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia. Endpoint is the Tarvisio gas measuring station in Italy.

Project’s design capacity is 63 billion cubic meters. Commissioning is scheduled for late 2015.

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South Stream

The essential precondition of issuing permissions by Baltic States governments to conduct works in their territorial waters in the Baltic Sea amounts to the observance of the Espoo Convention, which regulates the environmental impact of transborder business activities.

Nord Stream AG, the project’s operator, provided the preliminary mapping of of the pipeline routes, which are already adjusted to take into account ecologically sensitive areas, shipping lanes and other special areas. The company has already designed risk management systems, environmental impact mitigation measures as well as infrastructure and logistics required to build the new lines.

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Nord Stream

Construction of the NEL pipeline began in the spring of 2011, and it was planned to be completed by November 1, 2012, the start date of supplies via the second line of Nord Stream. However, in late June 2011 residents of several localities who were anxious the pipeline would run too close to their communities won a court order to temporarily stop construction. In their view, the pipeline should not be laid less than 350 meters from residential buildings.

The so-called «southern option» route was offered as an alternative when the pipeline would run at a safe distance from dwellings. The construction permit is accompanied by certain conditions. In particular, it’s necessary to observe environmental norms all along the length of the pipeline.

Prior to the commissioning of the last line of the NEL pipeline Russian gas will be supplied to consumers in Germany through existing routes.

The NEL gas pipeline, with a total length of 440 kilometers, will run from the point where the Nord Stream pipeline comes on shore near Greifswald to Hamburg and Bremen and the underground gas storage facility in Rehden (Lower Saxony). Its capacity will amount to 21.8 billion cubic meters per year. Through the NEL gas pipeline the Russian gas will be supplied to Germany as well as to Denmark, Holland, Belgium and the UK.

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Nord Stream, Germany

This figure is nearly 14% higher than the initial nominal capacity (9.6 million tons) of Russia's first LNG plant in Sakhalin. This was made possible by the improvement of production through efficiency program launched since the commissioning of the plant in February 2009.

LNG supplies from "Sakhalin-2" project total about 4.5% of the global liquefied natural gas market.

In 2012, annual LNG export volumes of Sakhalin Energy increased by 3% yoy. In 2011, exports amounted to 10.6 million tonnes.

Sakhalin Energy shareholders are Gazprom (50%), Shell (27.5%), Mitsui (12.5%) and Mitsubishi (10%).

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Sakhalin-2, LNG

The model, called "eco-gas", appeared on the German market two years ago and the volume of gas sold in this way has now reached 2 billion kilowatt hours (about 200 mln. cubic meters).

The concept allows the company to implement a number of climate protecting projects throughout the world. Each certificate is equal to one ton of CO2 and may be used only once. As WINGAS Managing Director for Sales Ludwig Möhring says, the company has already made us of 350,000 certificates.

WINGAS offers two types of "eco-gas" programs. The first involves the use of catalysts in the processing of nitrous oxide. This version is used, in particular, at Caojing chemical plants on the outskirts of Shanghai (China) that produce nitric acid. Another program focuses on the optimal use of various energy sources, which basically leads to a reduction in CO2 emissions. It is successfully used at the geothermal plant project in Salak (Indonesia) as well as at the wind power project Te Āpiti (New Zealand).

The cargo was delivered onboard the LNG Pioneer and discharge was completed successfully. The terminal has a throughput capacity of 5 million tonnes per annum, with plans to double capacity to 10 million tonnes in the next two to three years.

In October 2012, GM&T Singapore and GAIL signed a 20-year LNG sales and purchase agreement (SPA) under which GAIL will receive 2.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG (equivalent to approximately 130 million MMBtu or 3.5 bcm or 122 bcf per annum) over a period of 20 years.

The Dabhol LNG terminal is located at Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, 340 km south of Mumbai. GAIL is the commercial operator of the terminal.

Arthur Tait, President and Managing Director of GM&T Singapore, said: “We are very pleased to have delivered the commissioning cargo for the Dabhol terminal and to have been part of this milestone that will help meet India’s increasing demand for energy. Not only does it cement the relationship we have with a valued counterparty, it is also an illustration of our flexibility in meeting buyers’ short-term needs as well as fulfilling their long-term demands through supply agreements.”

The clauses of Addendum to the contract that were recognized valid by the arbitration in the October last year, are in controversy with the European competition law, namely Article 101 of the Treaty, starting from the moment when the Czech Republic joined the EU. The arbitration decision is clearly anti-Gazprom and forces Gazprom Export to act in breach of the European law.

At the same time, the decision taken by the arbitration allows RWE Transgas to retain its dominant position in the country throughout the duration of its contract, which results in restriction of competition. This directly conflicts the EU imperative norms as well.

In October 2012, the arbitration has declared valid the part of Addendum 1 to gas supply contract between RWE Transgas and Gazprom Export. This part of addendum says that the Czech subsidiary of the German concern can reduce its obligations for gas offtake (the “take-or-pay”) for the same amounts that the Gazprom Group directly supplies to the Czech market. At the same time, the symmetrical part of the same Addendum was declared non-valid. This latter part stated that Gazprom Export had the right to increase the obligations of RWE Transgas, on the amounts that RWE supplies outside of the Czech Republic to the markets where Gazprom Group is working as well.

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Czech Republic