South Stream

South Stream
Proposed route of South Stream
Location
Country	Russia Bulgaria Serbia Hungary Slovenia Croatia Austria
General direction	east–west
From	Russkaya compressor station near Anapa
Passes through	Black Sea Varna Pleven Zaječar Paraćin Gospođinci Bački Breg Hercegszántó Tornyiszentmiklós
To	Tarvisio, Italy Baumgarten an der March, Austria
General information
Type	Natural gas
Partners	Gazprom Eni Électricité de France Wintershall
Operator	South Stream Transport AG National project companies
Technical information
Length	2,380 km (1,480 mi)
Maximum discharge	63 billion cubic metres per annum (2.2×10^12 cu ft/a)
Number of compressor stations	10

South Stream (Russian: Южный Поток, Bulgarian: Южен поток, Serbian: Јужни ток/Južni tok, Slovene: Južni tok, Hungarian: Déli Áramlat, Italian: Flusso Meridionale) is an abandoned pipeline project to transport natural gas of the Russian Federation through the Black Sea to Bulgaria and through Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia further to Austria.

The project created controversy due to non-compliance with the European Union competition and energy legislation, such as the Third Energy Package, which stipulates the separation of companies' generation and sale operations from their transmission networks.

It was seen as rival to the Nabucco pipeline project. Construction of the Russian onshore facilities for the pipeline started in December 2012. The project was cancelled by Russia in December 2014 following obstacles from Bulgaria and the EU, the 2014 Crimean crisis, and the imposition of European sanctions on Russia. The project has been replaced by proposals of Turkish Stream and Tesla Pipeline.

The South Stream pipeline project was announced on 23 June 2007, when the Chief Executive Officer of the Italian energy company Eni Paolo Scaroni and the Vice-Chairman of Russian Gazprom Alexander Medvedev signed in Rome a memorandum of understanding for construction of the pipeline. On 22 November 2007, Gazprom and Eni signed in Moscow an agreement on establishing a joint project company for the commissioning of the marketing and technical feasibility studies of the project.