Analyst Vladimir Socor: South Stream – a "bluff" with no chance of success

The South Stream pipeline developed by Gazprom is „a bluff” with no chance of success as it doesn’t have the necessary funds or the natural gas resources, Jamestown Foundation analyst Vladimir Socor said on Wednesday, quoted by Romanian news agency Mediafax. He made the statement at a Romania-Russia economic forum in Bucharest.

He said the costs to build South Stream, valued at some 19-24 billion US dollars, were absurd. He said he believed Russia was using South Stream to block the accomplishment of the Nabucco pipeline project, which has EU and American support.

South Stream can block this in two ways, he said: by trying to impose the opinion that it has priority to Central Asian gas resources and by trying to meddle with the interest of Western investors in Nabucco.

Russia gave a strong impetus to the South Stream pipeline last week when Gazrom signed deals with Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Italy to fasten works at the project, according to the AFP.