BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) The head of Gazprom and Serbia's prime minister have agreed the start of the construction of the Serbian stretch of the 'South Stream' pipeline meant to transport Russian natural gas to Europe by bypassing Ukraine.
Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller and Ivica Dacic announced Monday the start of work on the Serbian section of the pipeline on Nov. 24. The complete trans-European pipeline is expected to start operating in December 2015.
The pipeline is expected to ship up to 63 billion cubic meters (2 trillion cubic feet) of gas annually to Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia, Austria and Italy in one leg and Croatia, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey in a second.
Pricing disputes between Russia and Ukraine have caused major disruptions in recent years, cutting gas for millions of customers.
