UPDATE Gazprom Export sources: Gazprom did not invite Transgaz officially to join South Stream

UPDATE There hasn’t been any official invitation from Russian company Gazprom to Romanuan company Transgaz for the latter to take part in South Stream, Gazprom Export sources close to South Stream told HotNews.ro. The quoted sources confirm Romanian state secretary Tudor Serban’s declarations made on Friday and contradict Romanian Economy Minister Adriean Videanu. The latter had officially announced last week that, after the visit of a Russian delegation in Bucharest, that Transgaz received Gazprom’s invitation to take part in the Russian protest.

The Russian sources made it clear that Transgas did not receive any invitation of taking part in the South Stream project and told that Russian company representatives proposed during discussions in Bucharest to analyse the possibility of building a gas pipe in Romania, should the future feasibility study prove such a project is viable.

In a press conference three days after his meeting with Gazprom representatives, Romanian Economy minister Adriean Videanu said :” Medvedev handed me the invitation, which I have passed on to Transgaz in order to contribute to south Stream. We will make available to Gazprom all the necessary data for their studies.” HotNews.ro sources disagreed this information made public by the Romanian minister.

Romania has not received any official invitation to join energy project South Stream, Romanian state secretary in the Economy Minister Tudor Serban told RFI reporters.

Economy minister Adriean Videanu recently announced that Romania has been invited by Gazprom to contribute to South Stream. Serban said that South Stream has the necessary gas supplies, while Nabucco doesn’t and needs to find them. Romania has a joint energy project with Azerbaidjan and Georgia, which will get Romania to give gas to Hungary and Bulgaria, Tudor Serban added.

• „In regards to the official invitation you are talking about, in my opinion it doesn’t exist yet. There have been talks when meeting Gazprom vice-president, but all discussions, at least the official part which I assisted, has been about information exchange, mainly technical issues addressing the area from the Black Sea through which the pipe will pass and to make available a series of measurements and information that we’ve got.”

Reporter: Is there sufficient gas for both Nabucco and South Stream?

Tudor Serban: Nabucco needs 30 billion, south Stream talks about 30 and 60. In my opinion, South Stream has got the necessary gas; Nabucco hasn’t and needs to find it.

Reporter: How do you think Brussels will react if Romania will become more interested in South Stream, Nabucco’s competition?

Tudor Serban: For the moment, Brussels has no reason to become alert because our position is the one that I’m talking about. It is a political game as well, made to impress and to make one of the projects seem less interesting. For the moment, in my opinion Romania has been fair play. Officially, We have not signed anything for South Stream.

We’ve got our own project which we want to develop with Azerbaijan and Georgia. This is a project through which we want to bring in gas from the Caspian Sea through a marine route. We have written agreements with both countries in this sense, which will soon turn into print agreement. After the last signature next week, the working groups will already set-up. This will be a private project. This would mean for Romania a quantity between three and eight billion cube meters from the Caspian states, which would represent for Romania half the gas quantity that we control and the possibility to give gas both to Hungary and Bulgaria.